Be Specific About Books To What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
| Original Title: | What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions |
| ISBN: | 0544272994 (ISBN13: 9780544272996) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Nonfiction (2014) |
Randall Munroe
Hardcover | Pages: 303 pages Rating: 4.16 | 115652 Users | 7998 Reviews
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Randall Munroe left NASA in 2005 to start up his hugely popular site XKCD 'a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language' which offers a witty take on the world of science and geeks. It now has 600,000 to a million page hits daily. Every now and then, Munroe would get emails asking him to arbitrate a science debate. 'My friend and I were arguing about what would happen if a bullet got struck by lightning, and we agreed that you should resolve it . . . ' He liked these questions so much that he started up What If.If your cells suddenly lost the power to divide, how long would you survive?
How dangerous is it, really, to be in a swimming pool in a thunderstorm?
If we hooked turbines to people exercising in gyms, how much power could we produce?
What if everyone only had one soulmate?
When (if ever) did the sun go down on the British empire?
How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?
What would happen if the moon went away?
In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, studded with memorable cartoons and infographics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. Far more than a book for geeks, WHAT IF: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much the smarter for having read.
Particularize Containing Books What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
| Title | : | What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions |
| Author | : | Randall Munroe |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 303 pages |
| Published | : | September 2nd 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Science. Humor. Audiobook. Physics. Comedy. Popular Science |
Rating Containing Books What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Ratings: 4.16 From 115652 Users | 7998 ReviewsAssessment Containing Books What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
What If?, or Serendipity; or the Literary/Pop Culture Quotes Quiz Late at night, about a week ago, I went through the Top Quotes pages of Goodreads. A hundred pages, each with thirty quotes: that's 3000 quotes. I have problems. I was searching for quotes that included (on the most part, primarily consisted of) a line in the form of 'If A, B' (let's call it an If quote, or IQ) - I'd compiled them because I had a certain idea for a review where I would use them.What's the catch? The idea was forI highly recommend taking the audiobook route for this one unless you absolutely love very technical science. Wil Wheaton's narration was excellent and he delivered Munroe's humor perfectly! I loved this so much I bought a hard copy for my coffee table.
AMAZING BOOK! I love love love it and frankly, there's no better book to read on the toilet. Off the toilet too, but I learned so much and the writing is so engaging and entertaining and just MARVELOUS. Of course in the style of xkcd, this and Atlas Obscura would be my go-to book gifts this year.
This is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. And I have read over 10 books.
Trying to thoroughly answer a stupid question can take you to some pretty interesting places. Randall Munroe, ex-NASA employee and author of the wildly popular webcomic XKCD, decides to look at several, undoubtedly, absurd questions and find scientific answers to them.Nothing is too absurd for him - whether it be the logistics of finding your soulmate to what happens if our moon suddenly disappears - Munroe answers it all. But Ive never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations
One of the things that's nice about goodreads is that it lets you embed pictures. ...And one of the nice things about xkcd is that it has lots of pictures licensed under CC Attribution/Non-Commerical - meaning I can post as many as I want to this review.I'm pretty sure that if you're here, you already know about xkcd. But hey, why the heck not? Right? XKCD is why this Randall Munroe character is famous.The book comes from his "what if" blog, which is also very good.I took the book into work with
This book is a 303 page answer to the question: What would happen if a skilled mathematician with an internet connection fielded unusual science questions? The answer seems to be a best-seller. Munroe has recently announced that he will follow this success with a sequel, How To; and this leads us naturally to consider whether this will turn into a trilogy. If so, we can already begin to predict how the last installment will be named.If we assume that the title will, like its predecessors,
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