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&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;div style=&amp;quot;display:none;&amp;quot;&amp;gt;__TOC__&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;{{DISPLAYTITLE:''what if?'' (blog)}}&amp;lt;noinclude&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
:''For other instances of this title, see [[What If (disambiguation)]].&amp;lt;/noinclude&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{notice|&lt;br /&gt;
===THINGS TO DO:===&lt;br /&gt;
*'''Move the ''Articles'' table to the [[What If? chapters]] page, and merge the two tables to create a complete article index''' (Just like [[List of all comics (full)]], but for the blog articles.)&lt;br /&gt;
*Add the new ''what if?'' YouTube videos to the existing table (as additional columns, since they're all based on blog articles).&lt;br /&gt;
*And maybe create a new table, containing only the YT videos, in chronological order.&lt;br /&gt;
Lower priority:&lt;br /&gt;
*Clean up the '''Answers''' column of the table. It should contain a short explanation of the answer, but not just 1-2 sentences.&lt;br /&gt;
*Clean up the Release schedule section (by using paragraphs instead of bullet points) and update it&lt;br /&gt;
*Make the existing files of thumbnails smaller for easier navigation, and upload the thumbnails of articles that don't have them&lt;br /&gt;
*Improve the newly-created explanation of the ''What if?'' [https://www.youtube.com/@xkcd_whatif YouTube channel]&lt;br /&gt;
*Mention the 2022 website redesign of the ''What if?'' website (use the [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://what-if.xkcd.com/ Wayback Machine] and take inspiration from [[Design of xkcd.com]])&lt;br /&gt;
I believe that, ''as a wiki'', we should have a complete, clear, and easy-to-navigate index of every ''What if?'' articles and videos, just like we do for the comics. If you can, please help us! All help is appreciated.&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:whatifbanner.jpg|300px|right]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
'''''[http://what-if.xkcd.com/ what if?]''''' is a blog hosted on the [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] domain and written by [[Randall Munroe]] with entries posted occasionally. On the blog, [[Randall Munroe]] discusses hypothetical physics questions submitted by readers. Before publishing the first ''what if?'' book, articles were posted weekly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since 2014, there's also a book of the blog. In 2022 the follow up book ''What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions'' was released on September 13. This was announced on xkcd on January 31st when the comic [[2575: What If? 2]] came out. This came out after a three week countdown revealing the image from the cover of the new book over 136 frames released with about 4 hours between each frame. This has become known as the [[Countdown in header text]], see all details on that page. Later he released a different countdown with comic [[2636: What If? 2 Countdown]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Unlike other sites which answer readers' questions, ''what if?'' typically takes the question beyond the original scope likely intended by the reader and takes it to some extreme for humorous effect. For example, in {{what if|1|the first article}}, he discusses what would happen if a baseball were pitched at 90% of the speed of light. After effectively describing what would occur as a nuclear explosion, leveling the stadium and the surrounding mile radius, he concludes with the note ''&amp;quot;A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered 'hit by pitch', and would be eligible to advance to first base.&amp;quot;''&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The questions Randall tackles range from questionably realistic possibilities (e.g. the probability of achieving a {{what if|2|perfect SAT score by guessing}}) to completely fictional questions (e.g. {{what if|3|How much Force power}} can {{w|Yoda}} output?). In his explanations, Randall, often uses diagrams in an ''xkcd'' style. Regardless of the context, Randall tends to take the questions extremely literally and responds seriously to them, even if they are whimsical (such as the Yoda question). This is clear from his response to the question of what would happen if everybody on Earth stood together and {{what if|8|jumped at the same time}}. After acknowledging that the question has been answered elsewhere, he recaps the result, but then focuses more intently on the unasked resulting issue of the aftermath of everyone on Earth being magically transported to one location as they all try to return home.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Notably, Randall has since created an official ''what if?'' YouTube channel where he voice-overs some of his previously published articles, including {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}, Drain the Oceans parts {{what if|53|1}} and {{what if|54|2}}, and {{what if|8|Everybody Jump}}. This YouTube channel was created in August of 2023, after both books had been published, and contains several questions not answered in the books, along with corrections and annotations in the videos themselves.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This site is '''not''' under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License], unlike normal xkcd comics.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Trivia==&lt;br /&gt;
* On this wiki, an easy way to link to a given ''what if?'' article is by using the {{Template|what if}} template. See this example:&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;code&amp;gt;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;See the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;font color=&amp;quot;SeaGreen&amp;quot;&amp;gt;'''''158'''''&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;|&amp;lt;font color=&amp;quot;SeaGreen&amp;quot;&amp;gt;'''''Hot Banana'''''&amp;lt;/font&amp;gt;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;}}''.&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;Copy paste the text above and correct the number and title (highlighted in green) to get this result:&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;See the ''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/what_if?_(blog) what if?]'' article ''{{what if|158|Hot Banana}}''.&lt;br /&gt;
* On December 5, 2016, an article called ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20161205191559/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153 Peptides]'' was published. However, it was [https://web.archive.org/web/20161206171630/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ removed] the next day, and the article was replaced by a notice: &amp;lt;blockquote&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;b&amp;gt;Whoops&amp;lt;/b&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;This article is still in progress. An early draft was unintentionally posted here thanks to Randall's [http://xkcd.com/1597/ troubled approach to git], and it took a little bit to get everything sorted out and rolled back. Sorry for the mixup!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; No finished version of the article was ever published, and the URL was later reused for ''Hide the Atmosphere''.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Release schedule==&lt;br /&gt;
*The two first articles were released on the same day, Tuesday July 10, 2012, probably to get the blog going, and let users of xkcd see that there was going to be more. &lt;br /&gt;
**After that they were released weekly for almost three years, with just a few times with two (and once three) weeks between releases, up until article 136 was released on April 12, 2015 (2 years and 40 weeks).&lt;br /&gt;
**First after 25 releases was there a two week Christmas break before article 26 was released on December 31, 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
**After that there were five more two weeks break, one three week break (before December 11, 2014) and two releases in a row (133-134 towards the end of this period of 136 articles), where the release dates where shifted so the two came out over three weeks' time with about 1.5 weeks between them.&lt;br /&gt;
**The second break came a year after the first and was also a Christmas break before article 77 was released on December 31, 2013&lt;br /&gt;
**Then from August 2014 there came several two week breaks, one in August, one in September and two in November, the last lasting three weeks into December, and on top of that the normal two weeks Christmas break.&lt;br /&gt;
**After this less orderly period there came a period of 10 weeks in a row with 10 releases starting on January 1, 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
*The release day was fixed to once a week on a given weekday, except for a few articles that were delayed a day (or two) in one week, but then next week's article would again be released on the normal day.&lt;br /&gt;
**To begin with the release day was '''Tuesdays''', and the third article was released a week after the first two on Tuesday July 17, 2012.&lt;br /&gt;
**The release day shifted to '''Wednesday''' from article 100 released on Wednesday June 11, 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
**The release day shifted once more to '''Thursday''' from article 117 released on Thursday October 23, 2014.&lt;br /&gt;
**The final six articles in this period were released on four different week days, only two of them with one week apart.&lt;br /&gt;
*The result of the above is that over the first 144 weeks 136 articles where released with never more than 3 weeks between releases. As the first two were released on week 1, this means that there were 134 articles released over the next 143 weeks, meaning there were only 9 weeks without an article.&lt;br /&gt;
*After article 136 was released on April 12, 2015, Randal took a '''13 week break''' from updates until July 14, 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
**At the time Randall wrote a note stating &amp;quot;What If updates are temporarily on hold, and will resume on July 14th, 2015 at 7:49:59 AM EDT.&amp;quot;  &lt;br /&gt;
**This was the date and time that the {{w|New Horizons}} probe achieved its closest approach to {{w|Pluto}}.  &lt;br /&gt;
**The article 137 from July 14, 2015 was about the New Horizons probe. &lt;br /&gt;
*After the break only three articles were released, two more were released after article 137 over three weeks, the last article 139 released on August 4, 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
**But then there were '''two more breaks''', so only one more article was released in 2015, with article 150 released after more than 6 weeks on September 18, 2015.&lt;br /&gt;
*First after 17 more weeks releases began again with article 141 on Tuesday January 16, 2016.&lt;br /&gt;
**After that articles began coming out regularly with a total of 9 releases out before the end of March 2016, mainly on Tuesdays to begin with, then one on a Friday before the last two came on Saturdays with two weeks breaks before each, the last being article 149 on March 26, 2016.&lt;br /&gt;
*Since then only three more articles were released in 2016, the first two with about 8 weeks between them and then more than 12 weeks.&lt;br /&gt;
**So during the summer of 2016, it seemed it was down to about one release every two months but then it increased.&lt;br /&gt;
*The what if? has not stopped but the first comic in 2017 (#153, January 30, 2017) came almost 15 weeks after the last in 2016, more than three months between releases. This was so far the second longest break.&lt;br /&gt;
**But the next one (#154) was indeed released only a bit more than week after the one with 15 weeks break, and then less than 3 weeks after followed yet an article on February 28 2017. &lt;br /&gt;
**It was almost a year ago that two comics had been released with less than two full weeks between them (that was #147 released February 26, 2016). In the year following that release only 8 articles where released including both #147 and #154. &lt;br /&gt;
**Interesting to see if they will begin appearing regularly again during the spring of 2017, as seems possible with three articles in less than a month and #156 was again released with less than two weeks between it and #155.&lt;br /&gt;
*It then seemed to stop completely after those two, and it took more than a year (62 weeks) before #157 {{what if|157|Earth-Moon Fire Pole}} came out in May 2018.&lt;br /&gt;
*Since then there was no new posts for almost four years.&lt;br /&gt;
**With the announced release of the what if? 2 book, in [[2575: What If? 2]], the break in release on the blog has likely been explained. And there may be a long time before they return in weekly doses. &lt;br /&gt;
***But just maybe as a teaser some (one) of the new from the book, might get released...&lt;br /&gt;
****Only 17 days under four years after the release of #157, we finally have #158: {{what if|158|Hot Banana}}.&lt;br /&gt;
****The next came just two months later, {{what if|159|Hailstones}}, the upcoming book most likely the reason. &lt;br /&gt;
*See more details for breaks in the releases in the table with a list of all the [[#Articles|articles]] down below.&lt;br /&gt;
**At the moment it seems impossible to guess when a new post is released so:&lt;br /&gt;
**'''It would be nice if anyone noticing a new post, that they made a note in the discussion of the next comic released.'''&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Articles==&lt;br /&gt;
{{incomplete|Below is a list of the articles released in the what if? blog. Among other things, it has to be cleaned up and moved and merged with the table in [[What If? chapters]]. See above on how you can help! Thanks!}}&lt;br /&gt;
 The official article list can also be found in the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ archive section] on the what if? blog.&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable &amp;quot; |   &lt;br /&gt;
! No.&lt;br /&gt;
! Title            &lt;br /&gt;
! Release date            &lt;br /&gt;
! Weeks since prev. article&lt;br /&gt;
! Question(s)&lt;br /&gt;
! Answer&lt;br /&gt;
! Thumbnail&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 1 || {{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}} || July 10, 2012 ||  || What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? || The very first what if? The result would be some kind of nuclear explosion, and possibly a ruling of &amp;quot;hit by pitch&amp;quot;. || [[File:Relativistic Baseball.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 2 || {{what if|2|SAT Guessing}} || July 10, 2012 || 0.0 || What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple-choice question? How many perfect scores would there be? || This second article was released on the same day as the first, probably to get the blog going, and let users of xkcd see that there was going to be more. No one would get a perfect score || [[File:SAT Guessing.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 3 || {{what if|3|Yoda}} || July 17, 2012 || 1.0 || How much Force power can Yoda output? || First regular release. From here on standard release day was Tuesday. It's about 19.2 kilowatts, or 25 horsepower.|| [[File:Yoda.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 4 || {{what if|4|A Mole of Moles}} || July 24, 2012 || 1.0 || What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place? || As a mole is such a high number this would be tricky. They would condense into a pressurized sphere of meat that would freeze and occasionally explode from gases.|| [[File:A Moles of Moles.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 5 || {{what if|5|Robot Apocalypse}} || July 31, 2012 || 1.0 || What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last? || Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. If not, then we all die. || [[File:Robot Apocalypse.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 6 || {{what if|6|Glass Half Empty}} || August 7, 2012 || 1.0 || What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty? || As in a vacuum? It would explode if the vacuum was on the bottom, but if it's on the top the air rushes in and it becomes normal water.|| [[File:Glass Half Empty.png]]     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 7 || {{what if|7|Everybody Out}} || August 14, 2012 || 1.0 || Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off-planet? || No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings and everything else behind. || [[File:Everybody Out.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 8 || {{what if|8|Everybody Jump}} || August 21, 2012 || 1.0 || What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant? || Earth would be unaffected but the human race would be wiped out due to everyone trying to get home at the same time. || [[File:Everybody Jump.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 9 || {{what if|9|Soul Mates}} || August 28, 2012 || 1.0 || What if everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world? || Almost nobody would find their soul mate. || [[File:Soul Mates.png]]  &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 10 || {{what if|10|Cassini}} || September 4, 2012 || 1.0 || What would the world be like if the land masses were spread out the same way as now - only rotated by an angle of 90 degrees? || Mass biosphere collapse. || [[File:Cassini.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 11 || {{what if|11|Droppings}} || September 11, 2012 || 1.0 || If you went outside and lay down on your back with your mouth open, how long would you have to wait until a bird pooped in it? || 195 years. Assuming you are in a area with a reasonable amount of birds. But why would you ''want'' to catch bird poop in your mouth? || [[File:Droppings.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 12 || {{what if|12|Raindrop}} || September 18, 2012 || 1.0 || What if a rainstorm dropped all of its water in a single giant drop? || The surrounding area would be obliterated and there would be mass panic for many following years. || [[File:Raindrop.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 13 || {{what if|13|Laser Pointer}} || September 25, 2012 || 1.0 || If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change color? || Not with regular lasers, but with more power, you could destroy the world. || [[File:Laser Pointer.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 14 || {{what if|14|Short Answer Section}} || October 2, 2012 || 1.0 || &lt;br /&gt;
* How long would the Sun last if a giant water hose were focused upon it?&lt;br /&gt;
* What if you shined a flashlight (or a laser) into a sphere made of one-way mirror glass? &lt;br /&gt;
* If Michael Phelps could hold his breath indefinitely, how long would it take for him to reach the lowest point in the ocean and back if he swam straight down and then straight back up? &lt;br /&gt;
* In the first Superman movie, Superman flies around Earth so fast that it begins turning in the opposite direction. This somehow turns back time [... ] How much energy would someone flying around the Earth have to exert in order to reverse the Earth's rotation? &lt;br /&gt;
* How fast would you have to go in your car to run a red light claiming that it appeared green to you due to the Doppler Effect? &lt;br /&gt;
* What would happen if you opened a portal between Boston (sea level) and Mexico City (elev. 8000+ feet)? &lt;br /&gt;
* When my wife and I started dating she invited me over for dinner at one time. Her kitchen had something called Bauhaus chairs, which are full of holes, approx 5-6 millimeters in diameter in both back and seat. During this lovely dinner I was forced to liberate a small portion of wind and was relieved that I managed to do so very discretely. Only to find that the chair I sat on converted the successful silence into a perfect, and loud, flute note. We were both (luckily) amazed and surprised and I have often wondered what the odds are for something like that happening. We kept the chairs for five years but despite laborious attempts it couldn't be reproduced.&lt;br /&gt;
|| || [[File:Short Answer Section.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 15 || {{what if|15|Mariana Trench Explosion}} || October 9, 2012 || 1.0 || What if you exploded a nuclear bomb (say, the Tsar Bomba) at the bottom of the Marianas Trench? || It would warm a small patch of the ocean and not do much. With a bigger bomb, it could destroy the world. Again. || [[File:Mariana Trench Explosion.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 16 || {{what if|16|Today's topic: Lightning}} || October 16, 2012 || 1.0 ||&lt;br /&gt;
* How dangerous is it to be in a pool during a thunderstorm?&lt;br /&gt;
* What would happen if you were taking a shower or standing under a waterfall when you were struck by lightning?&lt;br /&gt;
* What would happen if you were in a boat, plane or a submarine that got hit by lightning?&lt;br /&gt;
* What if you were changing the light at the top of a radio tower and lightning struck? Or what if you were doing a backflip? Or standing in a graphite field? Or looking straight up at the bolt?&lt;br /&gt;
* What would happen if lightning struck a bullet in midair?&lt;br /&gt;
* What if you were flashing your BIOS during a thunderstorm and you got hit by lightning?&lt;br /&gt;
|| || [[File:Today's topic- Lightning.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 17 || {{what if|17|Green Cows}} || October 23, 2012 || 1.0 || If cows could photosynthesize, how much less food would they need? || 4% less. There just isn't enough area. || [[File:Green Cows.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 18 || {{what if|18|BB Gun}} || October 30, 2012 || 1.0 || In Armageddon, a NASA guy comments that a plan to shoot a laser at the asteroid is like “shooting a b.b. gun at a freight train.” What would it take to stop an out-of-control freight train using only b.b. guns? || 40000 people and some magic. Stopping an asteroid with a laser on the other hand is a lot easier. || [[File:BB Gun.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 19 || {{what if|19|Tie Vote}} || November 6, 2012 || 1.0 || What if there's LITERALLY a tie? || The release date in the archive is the wrong year, saying 2013 instead of 2012. || [[File:Tie Vote.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 20 || {{what if|20|Diamond}} || November 13, 2012 || 1.0 || If a meteor made out of diamond and 100 feet in diameter was traveling at the speed of light and hit the earth, what would happen to it? || Nothing made of matter can travel at the speed of light, but at the closest speed observed (99.99999999999999999999951% of the speed of light, the speed of the Oh My God Particle), the Earth would explode with enough force to obliterate the entire solar system. || [[File:Diamond.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 21 || {{what if|21|Machine Gun Jetpack}} || November 20, 2012 || 1.0 || Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward firing machine guns? || Yes, but you need to talk to the Russians to do it right. || [[File:Machine Gun Jetpack.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 22 || {{what if|22|Cost of Pennies}} || November 27, 2012 || 1.0 || If you carry a penny in your coin tray, how long would it take for that penny to cost you more than a cent in extra gas? || Never. || [[File:Cost of Pennies.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 23 || {{what if|23|Short Answer Section II}} || December 4, 2012 || 1.0 ||&lt;br /&gt;
* If my printer could literally print out money, would it have that big an effect on the world?&lt;br /&gt;
* What would happen if you exploded a nuclear bomb in the eye of a hurricane? Would the storm cell be immediately vaporized?&lt;br /&gt;
* If everyone put little turbine generators on the downspouts of their houses and businesses, how much power would we generate? Would we ever generate enough power to offset the cost of the generators?&lt;br /&gt;
* Using only pronounceable letter combinations, how long would names have to be to give each star in the universe a unique one word name?&lt;br /&gt;
* I bike to class sometimes.  It's annoying biking in the wintertime, because it's so cold.  How fast would I have to bike for my skin to warm up the way a spacecraft heats up during reentry?&lt;br /&gt;
* How much physical space does the internet take up?&lt;br /&gt;
* What if you strapped C4 to a boomerang? Could this be an effective weapon, or would it be as stupid as it sounds?&lt;br /&gt;
||&lt;br /&gt;
* Printing $100 bills 24/7 for a year can make you about $200 million per year. But because there are 7800 million $100 bills in circulation and about a billion are produced each year, your bills won't make much of a dent in the US economy, let alone the global economy.&lt;br /&gt;
* According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who get asked this question a lot, this is a very bad idea.&lt;br /&gt;
* If set up in the rainiest place in the United States (Ketchikan, Alaska), the cost could be offset in about a century.&lt;br /&gt;
* If you make the words pronounceable by always alternating vowels and consonants, the names would be about 24 letters long.&lt;br /&gt;
* You would have to go 200m/s. Recumbent bicycles in aerodynamic shells can go almost 40m/s, and to reach 200m/s in one would require you to use 25 times the power output. Biking at that speed would make your body generate so much heat your core temperature would reach fatal levels in seconds.&lt;br /&gt;
* Just about the size of an oil tanker.&lt;br /&gt;
* This is neither aerodynamic nor a good idea.&lt;br /&gt;
||&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:Short Answer Section II.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 24 || {{what if|24|Model Rockets}} || December 11, 2012 || 1.0 || How many model rocket engines would it take to launch a real rocket into space? || About 65,000, give or take a few. || [[File:Model Rockets.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 25 || {{what if|25|Three Wise Men}} || December 18, 2012 || 1.0 || The story of the three wise men got me wondering: What if you did walk towards a star at a fixed speed?  What path would you trace on the Earth? Does it converge to a fixed cycle? ||  No, but it does make some really cool patterns. (Also, Randall misspelled Bethlehem)|| [[File:Three Wise Men.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 26 || {{what if|26|Leap Seconds}} || December 31, 2012 || 1.9 || Every now and then we have to insert a leap second because the Earth’s rotation is slowing down. Could we speed up Earth’s rotation, so that we do not need Leap Seconds? || The first two weeks Christmas break. || [[File:Leap Seconds.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 27 || {{what if|27|Death Rates}} || January 8, 2013 || 1.1 || If one randomly chosen extra person were to die each second somewhere on Earth, what impact would it have on the world population? || Not much. The world just has too many people. || [[File:Death Rates.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 28 || {{what if|28|Steak Drop}} || January 15, 2013 || 1.0 || From what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground? || From the very edge of the atmosphere and even then it might not be fully cooked. || [[File:Steak Drop.png]]&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 29 || {{what if|29|Spent Fuel Pool}} || January 22, 2013 || 1.0 || What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to actually experience a fatal amount of radiation? How long could I stay safely at the surface? || As long as you don't touch strange things and you don't swim too close to the fuel rods, it would be just like a regular pool. Except for the fact you would never make it to the pool. ||&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 30 || {{what if|30|Interplanetary Cessna}} || January 29, 2013 || 1.0 || What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different Solar System bodies? || It would be difficult to fly on Mars, so you would crash. The gas giants also have this problem, and you would freeze and tumble. Titan and Venus are the best bets, but Titan is cold and Venus is full of sulfuric acid.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 31 || {{what if|31|FedEx Bandwidth}} || February 5, 2013 || 1.0 || When - if ever - will the bandwidth of the Internet surpass that of FedEx? || NEVER!!!   &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 32 || {{what if|32|Hubble}} || February 12, 2013 || 1.0 || If the Hubble telescope were aimed at the Earth, how detailed would the images be? || A smudge of colour.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 33 || {{what if|33|Ships}} || February 19, 2013 || 1.0 || How much would the sea level fall if every ship were removed all at once from the Earth's waters? || Less than a human hair's width.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 34 || {{what if|34|Twitter}} || February 26, 2013 || 1.0 || How many unique English tweets are possible? How long would it take for the population of the world to read them all out loud? || Forever, literally.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 35 || {{what if|35|Hair Dryer}} || March 5, 2013 || 1.0 || What would happen if a hair dryer with continuous power was turned on and put in an airtight 1x1x1 meter box? || Bad things.  Like lava, and the burning of North America.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 36 || {{what if|36|Cornstarch}} || March 12, 2013 || 1.0 || How much cornstarch can I rinse down the drain before unpleasant things start to happen? || Define unpleasant. [[Megan]] seems to be having fun.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 37 || {{what if|37|Supersonic Stereo}} || March 19, 2013 || 1.0 || What if you somehow managed to make a stereo travel at twice the speed of sound, would it sound backwards to someone who was just casually sitting somewhere as it flies by? || Assuming the stereo is indestructible then yes. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 38 || {{what if|38|Voyager}} || March 26, 2013 || 1.0 || With today's technology, would it be possible to launch an unmanned mission to retrieve Voyager I? || We could possibly spend a ton of money and resources to get a probe to Voyager. Getting it back is another story.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 39 || {{what if|39|Hockey Puck}} || April 2, 2013 || 1.0 || How hard would a puck have to be shot to be able to knock the goalie himself backwards into the net? || This is another impossible scenario.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 40 || {{what if|40|Pressure Cooker}} || April 9, 2013 || 1.0 || Am I right to be afraid of pressure cookers? What's the worst thing that can happen if you misuse a pressure cooker in an ordinary kitchen? || The worst thing? Science.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 41 || {{what if|41|Go West}} || April 16, 2013 || 1.0 || If everybody in the US drove west, could we temporarily halt continental drift? || Not even by a bit.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 42 || {{what if|42|Longest Sunset}} || April 23, 2013 || 1.0 || What is the longest possible sunset you can experience while driving, assuming we are obeying the speed limit and driving on paved roads? || 95 minutes at the right place at the right time.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 43 || {{what if|43|Train Loop}} || April 30, 2013 || 1.0 || Could a high-speed train run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers staying comfortable? || No, not even if we change the requirements to just the passengers staying alive.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 44 || {{what if|44|High Throw}} || May 7, 2013 || 1.0 || How high can a human throw something? || 16 giraffes.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 45 || {{what if|45|ISS Music Video}} || May 14, 2013 || 1.0 || Is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo this] the most expensive music video ever? || No. Just no.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 46 || {{what if|46|Bowling Ball}} || May 21, 2013 || 1.0 || I've been told that if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a bowling ball, it would be smoother than said bowling ball. My question is, what would a bowling ball look like if it were blown up to the size of the Earth? || The finger holes would collapse and then not much would happen.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 47 || {{what if|47|Alien Astronomers}} || May 28, 2013 || 1.0 || Let's assume there's life on the the nearest habitable exoplanet and that they have technology comparable to ours. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see? || This →    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 48 || {{what if|48|Sunset on the British Empire}} || June 4, 2013 || 1.0 || When (if ever) did the Sun finally set on the British Empire? || It hasn't set and it won't for thousands of years.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 49 || {{what if|49|Sunless Earth}} || June 11, 2013 || 1.0 || What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off? || We would see a variety of benefits across our lives but we would also freeze and die.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 50 || {{what if|50|Extreme Boating}} || June 18, 2013 || 1.0 || What would it be like to navigate a rowboat through a lake of mercury? What about bromine? Liquid gallium? Liquid tungsten? Liquid nitrogen? Liquid helium? || As with a lot of these answers, just don't      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 51 || {{what if|51|Free Fall}} || June 25, 2013 || 1.0 || What place on Earth would allow you to freefall the longest by jumping off it? What about using a squirrel suit? || Mount Thor would allow the longest fall an-AAAAAAAAAAA...&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 52 || {{what if|52|Bouncy Balls}} || July 2, 2013 || 1.0 || What if one were to drop 3,000 bouncy balls from a seven story parking structure onto a person walking on the sidewalk below? Should the person survive, what would be the number of bouncy balls needed to kill them? What injuries would occur and what would the associated crimes be? || The release date in the archive is the wrong month June.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 53 || {{what if|53|Drain the Oceans}} || July 9, 2013 || 1.0 || How quickly would the ocean's drain if a circular portal 10 meters in radius leading into space was created at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean? How would the Earth change as the water is being drained? || NETHERLANDS RULE!!! P.S., everyone dies, new islands everywhere.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 54 || {{what if|54|Drain the Oceans: Part II}} || July 16, 2013 || 1.0 ||  Supposing you did {{what if|53|Drain the Oceans}}, and dumped the water on top of the Curiosity rover, how would Mars change as the water accumulated? || it would split into many islands and the Netherlands will take over.    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 55 || {{what if|55|Random Sneeze Call}} || July 23, 2013 || 1.0 || If you call a random phone number and say “God bless you”, what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed? On average, not just in spring or fall. || 1 in 40000     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 56 || {{what if|56|Restraining an Airplane}} || July 30, 2013 || 1.0 || If you wanted to anchor an airplane into the ground so it wouldn't be able to take off, what would the rope have to be made out of? || Whale hair.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 57 || {{what if|57|Dropping a Mountain}} || August 6, 2013 || 1.0 || What if a huge mountain—Denali, say—had the bottom inch of its base disappear? What would happen from the impact of the mountain falling 1 inch? What about 1 foot? What if the mountain's base were raised to the present height of the summit, and then the whole thing were allowed to drop to the earth? || The first scenarios are pretty boring. the last is devastating.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 58 || {{what if|58|Orbital Speed}} || August 12, 2013 || 0.9 || &lt;br /&gt;
* What if a spacecraft slowed down on re-entry to just a few miles per hour using rocket boosters like the Mars-sky-crane? Would it negate the need for a heat shield?&lt;br /&gt;
* Is it possible for a spacecraft to control its reentry in such a way that it avoids the atmospheric compression and thus would not require the expensive (and relatively fragile) heat shield on the outside?&lt;br /&gt;
* Could a (small) rocket (with payload) be lifted to a high point in the atmosphere where it would only need a small rocket to get to escape velocity?&lt;br /&gt;
||      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 59 || {{what if|59|Updating a Printed Wikipedia}} || August 20, 2013 || 1.1 || If you had a printed version of the whole of (say, the English) Wikipedia, how many printers would you need in order to keep up with the changes made to the live version? || 6, but they would cost much more than you could afford and filing would be a nightmare. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 60 || {{what if|60|Signs of Life}} || August 27, 2013 || 1.0 || If you could teleport to a random place of the surface of the Earth, what are the odds that you'll see signs of intelligent life? || 70% of the time you would end up in the ocean.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 61 || {{what if|61|Speed Bump}} || September 3, 2013 || 1.0 || How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? || Surprisingly fast, but beware destroying the city, and fines.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 62 || {{what if|62|Falling With Helium}} || September 10, 2013 || 1.0 || What if I jumped out of an airplane with a couple of tanks of helium and one huge, un-inflated balloon? Then, while falling, I release the helium and fill the balloon. How long of a fall would I need in order for the balloon to slow me enough that I could land safely? || 2500 cubic feet.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 63 || {{what if|63|Google's Datacenters on Punch Cards}} || September 17, 2013 || 1.0 || If all digital data were stored on punch cards, how big would Google's data warehouse be? || Big enough to bury the world many times.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 64 || {{what if|64|Rising Steadily}} || September 24, 2013 || 1.0 || If you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second, how exactly would you die? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else? || Assuming you had a good coat, you would survive to the death zone and die.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 65 || {{what if|65|Twitter Timeline Height}} || October 1, 2013 || 1.0 || If our Twitter timelines (tweets by the people we follow) actually extended off the screen in both directions, how tall would they be? || Very tall.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 66 || {{what if|66|500 MPH}} || October 8, 2013 || 1.0 || If winds reached 500 mph, would it pick up a human? || Absolutely! But first worry about what caused the 500 MPH winds...      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 67 || {{what if|67|Expanding Earth}} || October 15, 2013 || 1.0 || How long would it take for people to notice their weight gain if the mean radius of the world expanded by 1cm every second? (Assuming the average composition of rock were maintained.) || 10 years, give or take.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 68 || {{what if|68|Little Planet}} || October 22, 2013 || 1.0 || If an asteroid was very small but supermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince? || Yes, but it would be very inconvenient.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 69 || {{what if|69|Facebook of the Dead}} || October 29, 2013 || 1.0 || When, if ever, will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living ones? || A decade or a century, depending if Facebook would still be popular.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 70 || {{what if|70|The Constant Groundskeeper}} || November 5, 2013 || 1.0 || How big of a lawn would you have to have so that when you finished mowing you'd need to start over because the grass has grown? || Very big, bigger if you're a cougar.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 71 || {{what if|71|Stirring Tea}} || November 12, 2013 || 1.0 || I was absentmindedly stirring a cup of hot tea, when I got to thinking, &amp;quot;aren't I actually adding kinetic energy into this cup?&amp;quot; I know that stirring does help to cool down the tea, but what if I were to stir it faster? Would I be able to boil a cup of water by stirring? || No, and don't even try.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 72 || {{what if|72|Loneliest Human}} || November 19, 2013 || 1.0 || What is the furthest one human being has ever been from every other living person? Were they lonely? || Possibly the Apollo Astronauts but they definitely weren't lonely.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 73 || {{what if|73|Lethal Neutrinos}} || November 26, 2013 || 1.0 || How close would you have to be to a supernova to get a lethal dose of neutrino radiation? || About 2.3 AU.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 74 || {{what if|74|Soda Planet}} || December 3, 2013 || 1.0 || How much of the Earth's currently-existing water has ever been turned into a soft drink at some point in its history? || 0.0000005%.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 75 || {{what if|75|Phone Keypad}} || December 10, 2013 || 1.0 || I use one of those old phones where you type with numbers—for example, to type &amp;quot;Y&amp;quot;, you press 9 three times. Some words have consecutive letters on the same number. When they do, you have to pause between letters, making those words annoying to type. What English word has the most consecutive letters on the same key? || Nonmonogamous      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 76 || {{what if|76|Reading Every Book}} || December 17, 2013 || 1.0 || At what point in human history were there too many (English) books to be able to read them all in one lifetime? || Depends, as many were burned.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 77 || {{what if|77|Growth Rate}} || December 31, 2013 || 2.0 || What height would humans reach if we kept growing through our whole development period (i.e. till late teens/early twenties) at the same pace as we do during our first month? || 10 to 12 meters.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 78 || {{what if|78|T-rex Calories}} || January 7, 2014 || 1.0 || If a T-rex were released in New York City, how many humans/day would it need to consume to get its needed calorie intake? || One large-sized one or two small-sized ones per day.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 79 || {{what if|79|Lake Tea}} || January 14, 2014 || 1.0 || What if we were to dump all the tea in the world into the Great Lakes? How strong, compared to a regular cup of tea, would the lake tea be? || Not strong enough to make a difference.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 80 || {{what if|80|Pile of Viruses}} || January 21, 2014 || 1.0 || What if every virus in the world were collected into one area? How much volume would they take up and what would they look like? || It would be like a Super Bowl of pus.    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 81 || {{what if|81|Catch!}} || January 28, 2014 || 1.0 || Is there any way to fire a gun so that the bullet flies through the air and can then be safely caught by hand? e.g. shooter is at sea level and catcher is up a mountain at the extreme range of the gun. || It is possible, but beware the police.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 82 || {{what if|82|Hitting a comet}} || February 5, 2014 || 1.1 || Astrophysicists are always saying things like &amp;quot;This mission to this comet is equivalent to throwing a baseball from New York and hitting a particular window in San Francisco.&amp;quot; Are they really equivalent? || The baseball is much harder.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 83 || {{what if|83|Star Sand}} || February 11, 2014 || 0.9 || If you made a beach using grains the proportionate size of the stars in the Milky Way, what would that beach look like? || It would be a bunch of boulders with some patches of sand.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 84 || {{what if|84|Paint the Earth}} || February 18, 2014 || 1.0 || Has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the Earth? || So close!!! But no, only about as much as the land area of Russia.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 85 || {{what if|85|Rocket Golf}} || February 25, 2014 || 1.0 || Assuming that you have a spaceship in orbit around the Earth, could you propel your ship to speeds exceeding escape velocity by hitting golf balls in the other direction? If so, how many golf balls would be required to reach the Moon? ||  If you cheat, a bag a little smaller than the Moon.    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 86 || {{what if|86|Far-Traveling Objects}} || March 4, 2014 || 1.0 || In terms of human-made objects, has Voyager 1 travelled the farthest distance? It's certainly the farthest from Earth we know about. But what about the edge of ultracentrifuges, or generator turbines that have been running for years, for example? || The Mariner 1 has traveled much farther than Voyager 1.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 87 || {{what if|87|Enforced by Radar}} || March 11, 2014 || 1.0 || I've occasionally seen &amp;quot;radar enforced&amp;quot; on speed limit signs, and I can't help but ask: How intense would radio waves have to be to stop a car from going over the speed limit, and what would happen if this were attempted? || Intense enough to cause a medium sized nuclear explosion. Better to just carry a sign.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 88 || {{what if|88|Soda Sequestration}} || March 18, 2014 || 1.0 || How much CO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt; is contained in the world's stock of bottled fizzy drinks? How much soda would be needed to bring atmospheric CO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt; back to preindustrial levels? || Enough soda to cover Earth with ten layers of cans.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 89 || {{what if|89|Tungsten Countertop}} || March 25, 2014 || 1.0 || How far would a tungsten countertop descend if I dropped it into the Sun? || It would be vapourized before it got close to the Sun.        &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 90 || {{what if|90|Great Tree, Great Axe}} || April 3, 2014 || 1.3 ||&lt;br /&gt;
''If all the seas were one sea, &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''What a great sea that would be! &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''If all the trees were one tree, &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''What a great tree that would be! &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''If all the men were one man, &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''What a great man that would be! &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''If all the axes were one axe, &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''What a great axe that would be! &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''And if the great man took the great axe, &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''And cut down the great tree, &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''And let if [sic] fall into the great sea, &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
''What a great splish-splash that would be!'' &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
... How great would all of these things be?&lt;br /&gt;
|| The tree and splash would be great. The others not so much.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 91 || {{what if|91|Faucet Power}} || April 8, 2014 || 0.7 || I just moved into a new apartment. It includes hot water but I have to pay the electric bill. So being a person on a budget ... what's the best way to use my free faucet to generate electricity? || Just give it away as drinking water.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 92 || {{what if|92|One-Second Day}} || April 15, 2014 || 1.0 || What would happen if the Earth's rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second? || Everything on Earth would die, but if it happened when the Moon crosses the plane of the Earth, then everything in the Solar System will die (whether there is a difference is debatable).     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 93 || {{what if|93|Windshield Raindrops}} || April 22, 2014 || 1.0 || At what speed would you have to drive for rain to shatter your windshield? || Fast enough so you would need a speedometer in scientific notation.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 94 || {{what if|94|Billion-Story Building}} || April 29, 2014 || 1.0 || My daughter — age 4.5 — maintains she wants a billion-story building. It turns out not only is that hard to help her appreciate this size, I am not at all able to explain all of the other difficulties you'd have to overcome. || First of all, it would not stand under its own weight. Also, it would be many times the distance the Earth is from the Moon.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 95 || {{what if|95|Pyramid Energy}} || May 6, 2014 || 1.0 || What took more energy, the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Apollo Mission? If we could convert the energy to build the Great Pyramid, would it be enough to send a rocket to the Moon and back? || No      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 96 || {{what if|96|$2 Undecillion Lawsuit}} || May 14, 2014 || 1.1 || What if Au Bon Pain lost [http://loweringthebar.net/2014/05/2-undecillion-dollar-demand.html this lawsuit] and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion? || They would not be able to pay off the debt, even if they forced humanity to work as slaves from now until the stars die.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 97 || {{what if|97|Burning Pollen}} || May 20, 2014 || 0.9 || What if you were to somehow ignite the pollen that floats around in the air in spring? Other than being a really bad idea, what effect would it have? || It would just warm up the air by a bit.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 98 || {{what if|98|Blood Alcohol}} || May 27, 2014 || 1.0 || Could you get drunk from drinking a drunk person's blood? ||  Not before other nasty things happened.    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 99 || {{what if|99|Starlings}} || June 3, 2014 || 1.0 || I was watching [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY this video] and was wondering: How many birds there would need to be for gravity to take over and force them into a gargantuan ball of birds? || Enough to make a black hole    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 100 || {{what if|100|WWII Films}} || June 11, 2014 || 1.1 || Did WWII last longer than the total length of movies about WWII? For that matter, which war has the highest movie time:war time ratio? || From here on standard release day was Wednesday.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 101 || {{what if|101|Plastic Dinosaurs}} || June 18, 2014 || 1.0 || As plastic is made from oil and oil is made from dead dinosaurs, how much actual real dinosaur is there in a plastic dinosaur? || Not much      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 102 || {{what if|102|Keyboard Power}} || June 25, 2014 || 1.0 || As a writer, I'm wondering what would be the cumulative energy of the hundreds of thousands of keystrokes required to write a novel. || Less than enough energy to microwave a burrito.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 103 || {{what if|103|Vanishing Water}} || July 2, 2014 || 1.0 || What would happen if all the bodies of water on Earth magically disappeared? || Like with most of the other scenarios, everyone dies.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 104 || {{what if|104|Global Snow}} || July 9, 2014 || 1.0 || From my seven-year-old son: How many snowflakes would it take to cover the entire world in six feet of snow? (I don't know why six feet...but that's what he asked.) || Too many.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 105 || {{what if|105|Cannibalism}} || July 16, 2014 || 1.0 || How long could the human race survive on only cannibalism? || ................................     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 106 || {{what if|106|Ink Molecules}} || July 23, 2014 || 1.0 || Suppose you were to print, in 12 point text, the numeral 1 using a common cheap ink-jet printer. How many molecules of the ink would be used? At what numerical value would the number printed approximately equal the number of ink molecules used? || An 18 digit number.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 107 || {{what if|107|Letter to Mom}} || July 30, 2014 || 1.0 || What’s the fastest way to get a hand-written letter from my place in Chicago to my mother in New Jersey? ||  Missiles, obviously.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 108 || {{what if|108|Expensive Shoebox}} || August 13, 2014 || 2.0 || What would be the most expensive way to fill a size 11 shoebox (e.g. with 64 GB MicroSD cards all full of legally purchased music)? || There are many options (precious materials, hard drugs, physical file storage, etc.), but they all cap out at ~$2,000,000,000.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 109 || {{what if|109|Into the Blue}} || August 20, 2014 || 1.0 || If I shot an infinitely strong laser beam into the sky at a random point, how much damage would it do? || Most of the time it would not hit anything.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 110 || {{what if|110|Walking New York}} || August 27, 2014 || 1.0 || Could a person walk the entire city of NY in their lifetime? (including inside apartments) || 30 years to walk, much longer for the sentence.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 111 || {{what if|111|All the Money}} || September 2, 2014 || 0.9 || People sometimes say &amp;quot;If I had all the money in the world ...&amp;quot; in order to discuss what they would do if they had no financial constraints. I'm curious, though, what would happen if one person had all of the world's money? || The only thing to do would be to make a swimming pool, as it is unlikely anybody else would agree with your claims to all the money and property.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 112 || {{what if|112|Balloon Car}} || September 17, 2014 || 2.1 || My 12-year-old daughter is proposing an interesting project. She is planning to attach a number of helium balloons to a chair, which in turn would be tethered by means of a rope to a Ferrari. Her 13-year-old friend would then drive the Ferrari around, while she sits in the chair enjoying uninterrupted views of the countryside. Leaving aside the legal and insurance difficulties, my daughter is keen to know the maximum speed that she could expect to attain, and how many helium balloons would be required. || A balloon just big enough to lift you would be pushed down by the wind, and a balloon big enough to counteract that would lift up the car along with you. The way to achieve this result is [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=parasailing parasailing].&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 113 || {{what if|113|Visit Every State}} || September 24, 2014 || 1.0 || How fast could you visit all 50 states? || In just over 6 hours, in 5 satellite orbits.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 114 || {{what if|114|Antimatter}} || October 1, 2014 || 1.0 || What if everything was antimatter, EXCEPT Earth? || Our existence would end, but much slower than in most other situations, from outer-space gas and meteorites.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 115 || {{what if|115|Into the Sun}} || October 8, 2014 || 1.0 || When I was about 8 years old, shoveling snow on a freezing day in Colorado, I wished that I could be instantly transported to the surface of the Sun, just for a nanosecond, then instantly transported back. I figured this would be long enough to warm me up but not long enough to harm me. What would actually happen? || You would not be warmed if you went to the surface. The core, on the other hand, would vapourize you.       &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 116 || {{what if|116|No-Rules NASCAR}} || October 15, 2014 || 1.0 || If you stripped away all the rules of car racing and had a contest which was simply to get a human being around a track 200 times as fast as possible, what strategy would win? Let's say the racer has to survive. || If the rider has to survive, 90 minutes is the limit based on human G-force tolerances. If survival is not a priority, you have built a particle accelerator.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 117 || {{what if|117|Distant Death}} || October 23, 2014 || 1.1 || What is the farthest from Earth that any Earth thing has died? || The farthest that any human has died is about 167 kilometers. In terms of any living thing, however, bacterial spores on Voyager 1 are dying every few months, setting a new record each time. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 118 || {{what if|118|Physical Salary}} || October 30, 2014 || 1.0 || What if people's incomes appeared around them as cash in real time? How much would you need to make to be in real trouble? || A normal person would not get buried. A CEO, on the other hand, would be in trouble.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 119 || {{what if|119|Laser Umbrella}} || November 13, 2014 || 2.0 || Stopping rain from falling on something with an umbrella or a tent is boring. What if you tried to stop rain with a laser that targeted and vaporized each incoming droplet before it could come within ten feet of the ground? || It would be very complicated, not worth it, and would probably catch everything around you on fire.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 120 || {{what if|120|Alternate Universe What Ifs}} || November 20, 2014 || 1.0 || Dispatches from a horrifying alternate universe ||      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 121 || {{what if|121|Frozen Rivers}} || December 11, 2014 || 3.0 || What would happen if all of the rivers in the US were instantly frozen in the middle of the summer? || Every river in the US would flood, but we'd probably be fine.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 122 || {{what if|122|Lava Lamp}} || December 18, 2014 || 1.0 || What if I made a lava lamp out of real lava? What could I use as a clear medium? How close could I stand to watch it? || It would be too bright to watch and it would turn into rock quickly.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 123 || {{what if|123|Fairy Demographics}} || January 1, 2015 || 2.0 || How many fairies would fly around, if each fairy is born from the first laugh of a child and fairies were immortal? || They would have the same birth rate as humans, and they would become a major part of the ecosystem.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 124 || {{what if|124|Lunar Swimming}} || January 8, 2015 || 1.0 || What if there was a lake on the Moon? What would it be like to swim in it? Presuming that it is sheltered in a regular atmosphere, in some giant dome or something. || It would be super-cool, given that lower gravity would increase the size of splashes and the height of jumps.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 125 || {{what if|125|Bowling Ball}} || January 15, 2015 || 1.0 || You are in a boat directly over the Mariana Trench. If you drop a 7kg bowling ball over the side, how long would it take to hit the bottom? || Two hours and 20 minutes.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 126 || {{what if|126|Stairs}} || January 22, 2015 || 1.0 || If you made an elevator that would go to space (like the one you mentioned in the billion-story building) and built a staircase up (assuming regulated air pressure) about how long would it take to climb to the top? || A week or two.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 127 || {{what if|127|Tug of War}} || January 28, 2015 || 0.9 || Would it be possible for two teams in a tug-o-war to overcome the ultimate tensile strength of an iron rod and pull it apart? How big would the teams have to be? ||  Not too big.    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 128 || {{what if|128|Zippo Phone}} || February 5, 2015 || 1.1 || What in my pocket actually contains more energy, my Zippo or my smartphone? What would be the best way of getting the energy from one to the other? And since I am already feeling like Bilbo in this one, is there anything else in my pocket that would have unexpected amounts of stored energy? || The Zippo has more energy than your phone, but your hand would have even more.  &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 129 || {{what if|129|Black Hole Moon}} || February 12, 2015 || 1.0 || What would happen if the Moon were replaced with an equivalently-massed black hole? If it's possible, what would a lunar (&amp;quot;holar&amp;quot;?) eclipse look like? || It would not have a big impact unless it happened during the space age.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 130 || {{what if|130|Snow Removal}} || February 19, 2015 || 1.0 || I've long thought about putting a flamethrower on the front of a car to melt snow and ice before you drive across it. Now I've realized that a flamethrower is impractical, but what about a high-powered microwave emitter? ||      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 131 || {{what if|131|Microwaves}} || February 27, 2015 || 1.1 || I have had a particular problem for as long as I can remember. Any time I attempt to heat left over Chinese food in a microwave, it fails to heat completely through somewhere. Usually the center but not always and usually rice, but often it will be a small section of meat. It's baffling and has made me automatically adjust heating times to over 2 minutes. In most cases this tends to heat the bowl or plate more than the food. So I suppose the question is what is the optimal time to heat left over Chinese food in the microwave, how about an 800 watt microwave? || The release date in the archive is the wrong year 2014. From here on there seems to no longer be a standard release day for some time.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 132 || {{what if|132|Hotter than Average}} || March 7, 2015 || 1.1 || I saw a sign at a hot springs tub saying &amp;quot;Caution: Water is hotter than average&amp;quot; with water at about 39°C. Although they were presumably trying to say &amp;quot;hotter than the average swimming pool,&amp;quot; this got me wondering: What is the average temperature of all water on the Earth’s surface, and how does that temperature compare to 39°C? || There is a water average. Give the signmakers some credit.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 133 || {{what if|133|Flagpole}} || March 17, 2015 || 1.4 || So, you're falling from a height above the tallest building in your town, and you don't have a parachute. But wait! Partway down the side of that skyscraper there's a flagpole sticking out, sans flag! You angle your descent and grab the pole just long enough to swing around so that when you let go you're now heading back up toward the sky. As gravity slows you and brings you to a halt, you reach the top of the skyscraper, where you reach out and pull yourself to safety. What's the likelihood this could happen? || The first of two longer shifts in release day two weeks in a row which resulted in only two releases over three weeks, resulting in the eight break in total.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 134 || {{what if|134|Space Burial}} || March 28, 2015 || 1.6 || I've often joked I'd like to have my remains put into orbit. Not in a &amp;quot;scatter my ashes&amp;quot; sense, but, like, &amp;quot;throw my naked corpse out the airlock&amp;quot; sense. Honestly, my main motivation is to baffle someone in the distant future, but it's an interesting scientific question: what would happen to my body in orbit over the course of years, decades or centuries? || The second of two longer shifts in release day two weeks in a row which resulted in only two releases over three weeks, resulting in the eight break in total.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 135 || {{what if|135|Digging Downward}} || April 5, 2015 || 1.1 || What would happen if I dug straight down, at a speed of 1 foot per second? What would kill me first? || Magic, because science just works like that.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 136 || {{what if|136|Spiders vs. the Sun}} || April 12, 2015 || 1.0 || Which has a greater gravitational pull on me: the Sun, or spiders? Granted, the Sun is much bigger, but it is also much further away, and as I learned in high school physics, the gravitational force is proportional to the square of the distance. || The Sun. But spiders are a lot more scary.    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 137 || {{what if|137|New Horizons}} || July 14, 2015 || 13.3 || What if New Horizons hits my car? || The second longest break up til summer 2016, the only one to have been announced. The ninth break in total.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 138 || {{what if|138|Jupiter Submarine}} || July 28, 2015 || 2.0 || What if you released a submarine into Jupiter's atmosphere? Would it eventually reach a point where it would float? Could it navigate? || The sixth two weeks break, tenth break in total. Answer: NO!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 139 || {{what if|139|Jupiter Descending}} || August 4, 2015 || 1.0 || If you did {{what if|138|fall into Jupiter's atmosphere in a submarine}}, what would it actually look like? What would you see before you melted or burned up? || You would see...brown.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 140 || {{what if|140|Proton Earth, Electron Moon}} || September 18, 2015 || 6.4 || What if the Earth were made entirely of protons, and the Moon were made entirely of electrons? || First and shortest of two long breaks in a row, the 11th break in total. For the answer, the universe would be destroyed. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 141 || {{what if|141|Sunbeam}} || January 12, 2016 || 16.6 || What if all of the sun's output of visible light were bundled up into a laser-like beam that had a diameter of around 1m once it reaches Earth? || Second and longest break so far of two long breaks in a row, the 12th break in total. From here on standard release day was again Tuesday. Answer: A literal Death Star.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 142 || {{what if|142|Space Jetta}} || January 20, 2016 || 1.1 || What if I tried to re-enter the atmosphere in my car? (a 2000 VW Jetta TDI). Would it do more environmental damage than it is already apparently doing? || Actually, it would be more clean than it is currently!      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 143 || {{what if|143|Europa Water Siphon}} || January 26, 2016 || 0.9 || What if you built a siphon from the oceans on Europa to Earth? Would it flow once it's set up? (We have an idea for selling bottled Europa water.) || No, at least not with a siphon.      &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 144 || {{what if|144|Saliva Pool}} || February 2, 2016 || 1.0 || How long would it take for a single person to fill up an entire swimming pool with their own saliva? || 8345 years.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 145 || {{what if|145|Fire From Moonlight}} || February 9, 2016 || 1.0 || Can you use a magnifying glass and moonlight to light a fire? || NO!!!!!!     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 146 || {{what if|146|Stop Jupiter}} || February 16, 2016 || 1.0 || I understand that the New Horizons craft used gravity assist from Jupiter to increase its speed on the way to Pluto. I also understand that by doing this, Jupiter slowed down very slightly. How many flyby runs would it take to stop Jupiter completely? || This can never happen, even if we were to throw Earth at Jupiter.     &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 147 || {{what if|147|Niagara Straw}} || February 26, 2016 || 1.4 || What would happen if one tried to funnel Niagara Falls through a straw? || From here on there is no longer any standard release days. Answer: The International Niagara Committee, the International Niagara Board of Control, the International Joint Commission, the International Niagara Board Working Committee, and probably the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee would be angry. Also, the Earth would be destroyed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 148 || {{what if|148|Eat the Sun}} || March 12, 2016 || 2.1 || What percentage of the Sun's heat (per day) does the population of Earth eat in calories per year? What changes could be made to our diets for the amount of calories to equal the energy of the Sun? || The seventh two weeks break, 13th break in total.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 149 || {{what if|149|Pizza Bird}} || March 26, 2016 || 2.0 || My boyfriend recently took a flight on a plane with wifi, and while he was up there, wistfully asked if I could send him a pizza. I jokingly sent him a photo of a parrot holding a pizza slice in its beak. Obviously, my boyfriend had to go without pizza until he landed at JFK. But this raised the question: could a bird deliver a standard 20&amp;quot; New York-style cheese pizza in a box? And if so, what kind of bird would it take? || The eight two weeks break, 14th break in total.    &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 150 || {{what if|150|Tatooine Rainbow}} || May 23, 2016 || 8.3 || Since rainbows are caused by the refraction of the sunlight by tiny droplets of rainwater, what would rainbow look like on Earth if we had two suns like Tatooine? || First two months break of at least two in a row, the 15th break in total.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 151 || {{what if|151|Sun Bug}} || July 21, 2016 || 8.4 || How many fireflies would it take to match the brightness of the Sun? || Second two months break of at least two in a row, the 16th break in total.  The release date in the archive is the wrong month June. It was released [http://web.archive.org/web/20160718014924/http://what-if.xkcd.com/ between 18-20 July], as the link here was posted on the 20th. But on the [http://web.archive.org/web/20160724210016/https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ archive page] is says it was released on June 21, which should probably have been July 21.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 152 || {{what if|152|Flood Death Valley}} || October 18, 2016 || 12.6 || Since Death Valley is below sea level could we dig a hole to the ocean and fill it up with water? || After two 8 weeks breaks this one waited almost three months. Regarding the question it could be done, but why did the guy asking the question whish to do such a horrible thing Randall ends up asking back. Most of the what if? goes with citing temperature records and other trivia actually naming a Jeopardy master. At least two comics coming out right after this was referencing this article. [[1748: Future Archaeology]] and [[1750: Life Goals]]. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 153 || {{what if|153|Hide the Atmosphere}} || January 30, 2017 || 14.9 || Earth’s atmosphere is really thin compared to the radius of the Earth. How big a hole do I need to dig before people suffocate? || With close to 15 weeks this was the second longest break between articles so far. The hole needs to be Very big it turns out, but under the right circumstances a five mile hole over the entire state of Texas might suffice... But beware of messing with the Texans. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 154 || {{what if|154|Coast-to-Coast Coasting}} || February 8, 2017 || 1.3 || What if the entire continental US was on a decreasing slope from West to East. How steep would the slope have to be to sustain the momentum needed to ride a bicycle the entire distance without pedaling? || The article is about the slope needed to be able to coast on a bike, without using the pedals, across mainland USA. It turns out the ramp would need to be five miles high (8 km) to make this possible, and that would be at a speed slower than walking. Also you would need oxygen the first third of the way down... Unlike the last article, out after almost a 15 weeks break, this one was released only a bit more than week after that. It is almost a year ago that two comics have been released with less than two full weeks between them (that was #147 released February 26, 2016). In that year (assuming no more comics before February 26 2017), only 8 articles where released including both 147 and this one.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 155 || {{what if|155|Toaster vs. Freezer}} || February 28, 2017 || 2.9 || Would a toaster still work in a freezer?|| With less than 3 weeks between releases, releases seems to have become more regular in the beginning of 2017. &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;The question is not asked of Randall this time, but rather one he has found discussed on [http://www.maximumfun.org/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/mbmbam-343-sauce-doctors-blessing Episode 343] of the {{w|My Brother, My Brother and Me|advice podcast}} ''[http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/my-brother-my-brother-and-me My Brother, My Brother and Me]'' (links are those given in the article) where the three brothers McElroy are discussing a {{w|Yahoo! Answers}} question.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 156 || {{what if|156|Electrofishing for Whales}} || March 9, 2017 || 1.3 || I used to work on a fisheries crew where we would use an electro-fisher backpack to momentarily stun small fish (30 - 100 mm length) so we could scoop them up with nets to identify and measure them. The larger fish tended to be stunned for slightly longer because of their larger surface area but I don't imagine this relationship would be maintained for very large animals. Could you electrofish for a blue whale? At what voltage would you have have to set the e-fisher? || Second time with less than two weeks between release in 2017. &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;The answer focuses more on the bad side effects of electrofising, both long term effect on fish and also mentions killing of Dolphins. So it seems more of an protect the animal article than an answer. But the fact is that larger animals (and especially mammals) is likely to die rather than just get stunned. But it is also harder to get any effect in saltwater, which explains why electrofishing is mainly done in rivers and lakes. The higher conductivity of saltwater makes to current prefer to avoid the less salt whale rather than go through it. This is less of an issue in fresh water. So basically it just won't work on blue whales.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 157 || {{what if|157|Earth-Moon Fire Pole}} || May 21, 2018 || 62 || My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth? || After two in as short period of time in March 2017 more than a year (62 weeks) passed before the next entry came in May 2018... &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; After a discussion of the extreme challenges that this set-up would face (an extreme form of the challenges of a space elevator), Randall details the different domains of the new slowest extreme sport: climbing out of the Moon's gravity, accelerating through the middle transfer phase, and then decelerating to your supersonic arrival on earth. Fun.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 158 || {{what if|158|Hot Banana}} || May 4, 2022 || 206.3 || I heard that bananas are radioactive. If they are radioactive, then they radiate energy. How many bananas would you need to power a house? || Just under four years passed before a new What If. This new release is probably due to the upcoming release of the What If? 2 book.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; Bananas are not very radioactive; it would take an absurdly large number. However, gathering that many bananas in one place would have negative consequences. New York no longer exists. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 159 || {{what if|159|Hailstones}} || July 5, 2022 || 9 || My 4 year old son and I were wondering about soccer ball sized hail today. How much damage would a hail storm with size 5 soccer ball sized hail do? || Two month between releases, and relased two weeks after the previous comic promoting the new book, [[2636: What If? 2 Countdown]]. &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; No real chance of producing that big hail stones, but if they could be lethal even if staying indoors.   &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 160 || {{what if|160|Transatlantic Car Rental}} || September 6, 2022 || 9 || My daughter recently received her driver's permit in the US, and aspires to visit mainland Europe someday. She has learned enough about the rules of the road to know never to drive into the ocean; however, she jokingly suggested that given a sufficient quantity of rental cars, she could eventually get to Europe by driving east repeatedly. The question is, how many vehicles would it take to build a car-bridge across the Atlantic? || The 'reality' and consequences of using multiple cars (that are not your own) to construct a trans-Atlantic highway.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 161 || {{what if|161|Star Ownership}} || November 1, 2022 || 8 || If every country's airspace extended up forever, which country would own the largest percentage of the galaxy at any given time? || Australia owns most of the galaxy at certain points in time.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| 162 || {{what if|162|Comet Ice}} || December 6, 2022 || 5 || Could I cool down the Earth by capturing a comet and dropping it in the ocean, like an ice cube in a glass of water? || The comet either burns up in the atmosphere or speeds up global warming.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;!-- NOTE: When posting new articles into the table copy paste the two lines here below in right above the |} in the line above this comment, and put the number on the two &amp;quot;x&amp;quot;es places and add the Title and the release date as taken from the archive for what if? Finally calculate how many weeks it has been since last release (X.Y), or leave that field empty:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| x || {{what if|x|Title}} || Month Day, 20XX || X.Y || Question ||&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since the release are now so random, then please think about writing a comment on the newest comics talk page, announcing that a new what if? is out, many people would probably appreciate this&lt;br /&gt;
--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:What If?| 1]]&lt;br /&gt;
{{xkcdmeta}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>172.68.245.228</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2003:_Presidential_Succession&amp;diff=360363</id>
		<title>2003: Presidential Succession</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2003:_Presidential_Succession&amp;diff=360363"/>
				<updated>2024-12-26T15:02:56Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;172.68.245.228: /* Order of succession */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{comic&lt;br /&gt;
| number    = 2003&lt;br /&gt;
| date      = June 6, 2018&lt;br /&gt;
| title     = Presidential Succession&lt;br /&gt;
| image     = presidential_succession.png&lt;br /&gt;
| titletext = Ties are broken by whoever was closest to the surface of Europa when they were born.&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Explanation==&lt;br /&gt;
The {{w|United States presidential line of succession}} is the order of people who serve as president if the current incumbent president is incapacitated, dies, resigns, or is removed from office. The {{w|Presidential Succession Act#Presidential Succession Act of 1947|Presidential Succession Act of 1947}} revised the presidential order of succession to its current order. This Act, though never challenged in the courts, may not be constitutional for two reasons. First, the Act names two members of Congress as successors. There are fundamental questions as to whether this violates the principle of Separation of Powers. The second issue is that the Act allows for anyone skipped over for succession to later assume the office if circumstances change to allow them to hold it. This would mean that the person in question could effectively unseat a sitting President, which raises serious constitutional issues. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are also practical concerns regarding the Act. The line of succession includes all members of the Cabinet in the order that their department was established, with the oldest departments first. No consideration is given to which departments would be most relevant to the Presidency, particularly considering that this type of succession would presumably involve a serious crisis, which the new president would need to be able to address immediately. The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of the security and protection of the United States and its citizens and would probably already be privy to sensitive intelligence and briefings related to national security, but because it is the latest of the Departments to have been established (in 2003), the Secretary of Homeland Security is last in the current Presidential line of succession, behind Secretaries in much less sensitive roles, such as those of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Education. Another concern is that, by including members of Congress immediately after the Vice President, there is a serious risk that the simultaneous death of the President and Vice President could cause the Presidency to change to the opposing party, which could lead to serious political instability at the precise moment when the country is facing a national crisis. It even presents the possibility that simultaneous assassinations of the President and Vice President could function as an effective coup, shifting power to their opponents. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Finally, there is the issue that, usually, everyone in the line of succession lives and works in Washington D.C. Hence, a sufficiently destructive attack or natural disaster impacting the city could realistically incapacitate all of them, leaving the USA leaderless at a time of extreme crisis. It is already established practice in the USA that everyone in this line not gather together at once. In cases where most senior government officials gather (such as the {{w| State of the Union}}), at least one member of the line of succession (referred to as the &amp;quot;designated survivor&amp;quot;) is secured off-site, and would assume the presidency in the unlikely event that a {{w| mass casualty event}} were to kill or incapacitate everyone else in the line. However, disasters impacting an entire city remain a possibility, and no provision is made for them in current law.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To correct these issues, a think tank known as the {{w| Continuity of Government Commission}} prepared a report recommending a new line of succession, which would not include members of Congress, would reorder the cabinet secretaries so that the most suitable roles would be the first successors, and would include people who do not live or work in Washington DC. The full text of their report can be found [https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06_continuity_of_government.pdf here]. A short, readable summary, including the report's recommended new line of succession, is [https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-continuity-of-the-presidency-the-second-report-of-the-continuity-of-government-commission here]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The first six members of the commission's list are taken from the current line of succession, though the order is changed; they propose that after this, five new people should be appointed specifically for the purpose of assuming the presidency, if needed. Randall's list begins with these eleven people (combining the five new appointees into #7); afterwards, his list becomes increasingly comical and ridiculous.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Randall's list omits members of Congress, as well as other cabinet positions, in accordance with the report's concerns about constitutionality and qualifications. However, his other additions totally ignore these issues, including people with no apparent qualifications for the office (such as actors, athletes, and competitive eaters) and people who are constitutionally ineligible for the office. The US Constitution requires that the President of the United States must be a natural-born US citizen, at least 35 years of age, and have resided in the US for at least fourteen years. Randall's list includes many people who don't meet these requirements. Most notably, he includes the entire succession to the British crown, almost none of whom meet the requirement of being natural-born citizens of the United States.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It may be expected that many of the athletes, musicians and actors on this list are likely to be ineligible as well. Most professional athletes in the relevant sports are under 35 years old, particularly those at the peak of their careers (when they'd likely win MVP awards), the most popular musicians also tend to be younger than 35, and many who meet these requirements were not born US citizens (and some many not even reside in the US). However, the existing line of succession can also contain ineligible people, who would simply be skipped over for succession. For example, at the comic's publication, {{w|Elaine Chao}} was the Secretary of Transportation and would normally be 14th in line, but because she is a naturalized citizen of the US, rather than native-born (she was born in Taiwan) she would not qualify for the office if the line came to her. The presidential line of succession was first mentioned in [[1933: Santa Facts]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The title text mentions that ties will be broken by whoever was closest to the surface of {{w|Europa}} when they were born. Europa is a moon of Jupiter and one of the most likely locations in the Solar System for {{w|Habitability of natural satellites|potential habitability}}. This is likely a parody of systems in which ties are broken by semi-arbitrary rules (such as the older candidate automatically winning a tie) or a randomized ones (such as ties being decided by a coin flip). The position of Europa with respect to Earth at the time of one's birth depends on enough factors that it acts as a pseudo-random tie breaker, albeit a needlessly complicated one.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Order of succession==&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable sortable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
!#&lt;br /&gt;
!Randall's order&lt;br /&gt;
!Current order by the 1947 Act&lt;br /&gt;
!Notes&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|1&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|POTUS|President}}&lt;br /&gt;
|President&lt;br /&gt;
|Not generally considered part of the line of succession, as incumbents cannot &amp;quot;succeed&amp;quot; to their own post. (This should really be item 0 on the list.)&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|2&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|POTUS|Vice president}}&lt;br /&gt;
|Vice president&lt;br /&gt;
|This is the same as in the actual line of succession. Succeeding the President is one of the only two roles assigned to the Vice President by the Constitution, the other being presiding over the Senate (including breaking ties), but Vice Presidents are often given additional roles during office.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|3&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State}}&lt;br /&gt;
|Speaker of the House of Representatives&lt;br /&gt;
|Moved up from 5th position. This is likely a serious suggestion. As mentioned above, the existing Succession Act includes the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate, which presents serious practical and constitutional issues. The Secretary of State is the chief officer responsible for the country's international relations and diplomatic missions, and would be a logical successor, particularly in times of crisis. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|4&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense}}&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|President pro tempore of the United States Senate|President pro tempore of the Senate}}&lt;br /&gt;
|Moved up from 7th position. Also likely a serious suggestion. The existing succession places the Secretary of Defense behind the Secretary of the Treasury in succession. If the three preceding officials were simultaneously killed or incapacitated, there would be a high likelihood that the country was under attack, and other powers could easily try to take advantage of any power vacuum. Since the Secretary of Defense is most connected to the nation's military, and most in tune with information regarding potential threats and risks, this would be a logical succession.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|5&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Secretary of Homeland Security|Secretary of Homeland Security}}&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of State&lt;br /&gt;
|Moved up from 19th position. Again likely a serious suggestion. As with the Secretary of Defense, this officer would likely be closely aligned with the national emergency response infrastructure (including overseeing the {{w|Federal Emergency Management Agency}}), and would be well equipped to deal with a major attack or natural disaster. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|6&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Attorney General|Attorney General}}&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury}}	&lt;br /&gt;
|Moved up from 8th position. Once again, likely a serious suggestion. The Attorney General oversees national law enforcement, and would be in a position to deal with internal chaos that could result from a disaster that impacted the federal government so deeply. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|7&lt;br /&gt;
|Five people who do not live in {{w|Washington, D.C.}}, nominated at the start of the President's term and confirmed by the Senate&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Defense&lt;br /&gt;
|Washington, D.C is the capital of the United States, and is where the {{w|White House}}, the President's residence, is located. Presumably this provision covers the case where much of the government, including positions 1–6 here, are killed by a natural disaster or attack in Washington, D.C.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This suggestion establishes no qualifications for these people, but the fact that they'd need to be confirmed by the Senate suggests that they would be chosen to be competent for the role. It is also unclear if an order is determined among these five or if they take up a joint presidency. This suggestion is taken from the Second Report of the Continuity of Government Commission to prevent the danger of the entire line of succession being removed in a single event. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|8&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|Tom Hanks}}&lt;br /&gt;
|Attorney General&lt;br /&gt;
|Academy Award-winning American actor. This is the first unambiguously unserious suggestion.{{Citation needed}} Tom Hanks is very popular and considered exceptionally likeable by many Americans, but has never served in public office or displayed any particular affinity for politics. The implication is that Mr. Hanks would be easily accepted as a leader, based solely on his personal charm. It should also be noticed that Tom Hanks played Jim Lovell, who served in the navy before becoming an astronaut (Many early astronauts were former military members.), in ''Apollo 13'', a military captain in ''Saving Private Ryan'', a prison officer in ''The Green Mile'', a naval intelligence officer in ''James B. Donovan'', and a member of the House of Representatives in ''Charlie Wilson's War''; if Tom Hanks's appearances in movies counted as real-life experience, then he would be adequately qualified.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|9&lt;br /&gt;
|State Governors, in descending order of state population at last census&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior}}&lt;br /&gt;
|Also taken from Second Report of the Continuity of Government Commission. At the time of publication, the last {{w|United States Census}} was the 2010 Census. As California is the most populous state, its Governor ({{w|Jerry Brown}} at the time of publication) would have been first in line. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
See also the {{w|2010_United_States_Census#State_rankings|state population rankings}} and the {{w|list of current United States governors}}. As worded, this criterion would exclude territorial governors (and the Mayor of Washington, D.C.).&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|10&lt;br /&gt;
|Anyone who won an Oscar for playing a governor&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Secretary of Agriculture|Secretary of Agriculture}}&lt;br /&gt;
|Oscars, or {{w|Academy Awards}}, are annual film awards awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At the time of publication, the only Oscar awarded for playing a governor was {{w|Broderick Crawford}}'s 1949 Best Actor award for the fictional Willie Stark in ''{{w|All the King's Men (1949 film)|All the King's Men}}'' (a character based on {{w|Huey Long}}). However, Crawford died in 1986, so would be unable to serve as President.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This may be a reference to the {{w|Political career of Arnold Schwarzenegger}}: a highly-lauded actor who became governor of California, but did not win an Oscar or play a governor before being elected. (As a naturalized citizen, he is also ineligible for the Presidency.)&lt;br /&gt;
There is also humor in suggesting that playing a governor delivers just as much experience as being a governor. (Something similar was mentioned in the section about Tom Hanks, who played, among other things, a member of the House of Representatives.)&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|11&lt;br /&gt;
|Anyone who won a Governor's award for playing someone named Oscar&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|United States Secretary of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce}}	&lt;br /&gt;
|The {{w|Governors Awards}} are an annual award ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present lifetime achievement awards within the film industry. As this award is a lifetime achievement award, it does not seem possible that an actor could win this award for simply playing someone named Oscar. Notwithstanding the nature of the award, at the time of publication, no recipient of a Governors Award has played a character named Oscar.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Obviously, the joke is that changing the order of the words from the previous proposal produces something that could actually exist.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|12&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|Kate McKinnon}}, if available&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Labor&lt;br /&gt;
|Comedic actress famous for being a cast member on {{w|Saturday Night Live}}. She is known for her character work and celebrity impressions. She has recently done impersonations of members of the Trump administration including Spokeswoman {{w|Kellyanne Conway}} and Attorney General {{w|Jeff Sessions}}. She also played {{w|Hillary Clinton}} during the 2016 campaign and presumably would have played her when she was President had she won; but since Clinton lost, McKinnon has not actually played a President. At the time the comic was released, she was 34 years 5 months old; thus she was not &amp;quot;available&amp;quot; until seven months later. Being available could also refer to not already having an acting commitment, in which case the comic would be humorously implying that fulfilling her acting roles is more important than the country having leadership.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|13&lt;br /&gt;
|Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles artists #1 through #10 (for groups, whoever is credited first in name, liner notes, etc)&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Health and Human Services	&lt;br /&gt;
|The {{w|Billboard Hot 100}} is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. The weekly data is aggregated into a cumulative {{w|Billboard Year-End}} (based on a &amp;quot;year&amp;quot; that ends the third week of November, in order to meet December publication deadlines). At the time of publication, the most recent such list was the {{w|Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2017}}.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Based on that list, the artists considered for the presidential succession would be: {{w|Ed Sheeran}}, {{w|Luis Fonsi}}, {{w|Bruno Mars}}, {{w|Kendrick Lamar}}, Alex Pall (of {{w|The Chainsmokers}}), {{w|Quavo|Quavoius Keyate Marshall}} (of {{w|Migos}}), {{w|Sam Hunt}}, {{w|Dan Reynolds}} (of {{w|Imagine Dragons}}), and {{w|Post Malone}}. There are only nine names instead of ten because The Chainsmokers had two of the top 10 singles in 2017. Of these, only Luis Fonsi (40 years old, born in Puerto Rico) was legally eligible for the office; all the others were too young, and Sheeran is additionally from the United Kingdom.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|14&lt;br /&gt;
|The top 5 US astronauts in descending order of total spaceflight time&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	&lt;br /&gt;
|Astronauts are highly respected and rigorously selected, but most have little involvement in politics. According to [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-station-astronaut-record-holders NASA], the top 5 US astronauts by cumulative space time at the time of publication were: {{w|Peggy Whitson}}, {{w|Jeffrey Williams (astronaut)|Jeff Williams}}, {{W|Scott Kelly (astronaut)|Scott Kelly}} (whose brother {{w|Mark Kelley (astronaut)|Mark}} is a sitting US Senator), {{w|Mike Fincke}}, and {{w|Mike Foale}}. However, it is unclear whether Foale would qualify as a natural-born citizen, as he was born in the United Kingdom to a British father and American mother.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|15&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|Serena Williams}} (or, if she lost her most recent match, whoever beat her)&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Transportation&lt;br /&gt;
|As of the time of publication, Serena Williams was a top female tennis player. She is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all-time, winning 39 {{w|Grand Slam (tennis)|Grand Slam}} titles, including 23 women's singles titles. At the time of publication Serena Williams did win her most recent match (2018 French Open, third round, on June 2nd), although she withdrew from her next match against Maria Sharapova (which perhaps should count as a loss, especially if she withdrew in order to preserve her place in the line of succession and killed everyone in place ahead of her).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If her most recent defeat was to a non-US player, presumably she would be skipped over in line although this is not explicitly stated (the current succession list skips over anyone who would not normally qualify for not being a natural-born US citizen).&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|16&lt;br /&gt;
|The most recent season NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL MVPs&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Energy&lt;br /&gt;
|MVP stands for {{w|Most Valuable Player}}. The 4 listed leagues are the major sports leagues in the United States, the {{w|National Basketball Association}} (NBA), the {{w|National Football League}} (NFL), {{w|Major League Baseball}} (MLB), and the {{w|National Hockey League}} (NHL). We're assuming that Randall meant the regular season MVPs of each league, as each league also awards MVPs for their respective championships (or in the case of the NHL's {{w|Conn Smythe Trophy}}, their entire playoffs).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As of the time of publication, the most recent MVPs for the listed sports were {{w|Russell Westbrook}} (NBA), {{w|Tom Brady}} (NFL), {{w|José Altuve}} and {{w|Giancarlo Stanton}} (MLB has two, one for the American League and one for the National League), and {{w|Connor McDavid}} (NHL). Of these, only Brady would qualify for the list - Altuve and McDavid are Venezuelan and Canadian citizens respectively, and Westbrook (29) and Stanton (28) were too young.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|17&lt;br /&gt;
|{{w|Bill Pullman}} and his descendants by absolute primogeniture&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Education	&lt;br /&gt;
|American actor, known for playing President Thomas J. Whitmore in the 1996 film ''{{w|Independence Day (1996 film)|Independence Day}}''. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Absolute primogeniture is a form of succession where the oldest direct descendant regardless of gender receives the title. This is contrasted to {{w|Male-preference primogeniture}}, in which males come before females in the order of the throne, whether the males were born first or not. This may be a reference to the British law {{w|Succession to the Crown Act 2013}}, which changed the order of the throne from male-preference primogeniture to absolute primogeniture. This act allows {{w|Princess Charlotte of Cambridge|Princess Charlotte}} to retain her place in line before {{w|Prince Louis of Cambridge|Prince Louis}}. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
At the time of publication, Pullman's immediate descendants consisted of three children, with Maesa Pullman being the oldest at age 29. Thus all but Bill Pullman himself were too young for the presidency.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|18&lt;br /&gt;
|The entire line of succession to the British throne&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Veterans Affairs	&lt;br /&gt;
|According to the Constitution, only a natural-born citizen of the United States can become President, which means that at least most of the line of succession to the British throne is ineligible. However, it is possible that someone in the line of succession to the British throne either is a dual citizen or is not British (a person from outside of Britain or Ireland can become King; for example, some, including George I, were from what is now Germany). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The first 59 names on the list are {{w|Succession_to_the_British_throne#Current_line_of_succession|here}}. [https://lineofsuccession.co.uk/?date=2018-06-06 British Line of Succession on 6 June 2018] shows the list as it was at the comic's publication. American citizens [http://articles.latimes.com/1988-02-11/news/vw-42233_1_royal-house have, at times] been on the list, but no natural-born Americans were on the list when the comic was published. However, after this comic was published {{w|Archie Mountbatten-Windsor}} was born on May 6, 2019; he is currently seventh in the line of succession to the British throne and has US citizenship through his mother {{w|Meghan, Duchess of Sussex}}. As with Mark Foale, though, whether that qualifies as natural-born has not be tested (leaving aside his age and the fact that many royals in his position have historically relinquished their birthright US citizenship voluntarily, which he may choose to do once he reaches age 16). In theory, the full British succession list includes [http://www.wargs.com/essays/succession/2011.html several thousand people] (living descendants of {{w|Sophia of Hanover}} who are not Roman Catholic or otherwise disqualified), and it is possible that one or more such people would also be eligible to be President of the United States beyond Master Archie. Archie's sister Lillibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born in Santa Barbara, California, USA, on June 4, 2021, making her definitively a natural born US citizen, and thus, theoretically eligible to become US president upon turning 35.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The humor here derives from the fact that the United States was established by declaring independence from the United Kingdom, with rejection of the British monarchy being a basic founding principle, and a core principle of US governance. To appoint the British monarchy to the American presidency would contradict the basic goals of American independence. Alternatively, it may reference the recent wedding of {{w|Prince Harry}} to {{w|Meghan Markle}}, although she is not in the order of succession. A similar sequence of events was the plotline of the comedy film ''{{w|King Ralph}}'', which saw an American become the British monarch after the death of the royal family.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|19&lt;br /&gt;
|The current champion of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest&lt;br /&gt;
|Secretary of Homeland Security&lt;br /&gt;
|The {{w|Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest}} is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition sponsored by {{w|Nathan's Famous}} held on July 4th. As of the time of publication, the most recent men's winner was {{w|Joey Chestnut}} and the women's winner was {{w|Miki Sudo}}. At the time of publication, neither was old enough to assume the office.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The comic does not specify whether the men's or women's winner should take office, creating a tie that would be broken by distance from Europa at birth. Had they both been eligible, [https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/29132/was-earth-closer-to-europa-on-1983-11-25-or-1985-07-22 Sudo would have won] by between 0.125 and 2.2 {{w|Astronomical unit}}s.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|20&lt;br /&gt;
|All other US citizens, chosen by a 29-round single-elimination Jousting tournament&lt;br /&gt;
|''None''&lt;br /&gt;
|Effective for a population up to 536,870,912 individuals (2^29) which would be enough to cover the entire US population (estimated at around 325 million at time of publication), although additional rounds can be added should the population grow further.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is probably a reference to the {{w|Matter of Britain}} (e.g., {{w|The Sword in the Stone (film)|The Sword in the Stone}}), where, after the death of Uther Pendragon, with no known successor to the throne of Britain (some versions of the legend refer incorrectly to England) for years, it is decided that the winner of a jousting tournament shall be crowned. However, Arthur, the Wart, pulls the Sword from the Stone.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===List of specific individuals===&lt;br /&gt;
Based on the comic's defined criteria for the order of succession, these are the specific individuals in that order, including only people who are otherwise eligible to be the President of United States (35 year old and natural born US citizens who lived in US for last 14 years) '''as of the date the comic was published'''. &lt;br /&gt;
#[[Donald Trump]] ({{w|President of the United States}})&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike Pence}} ({{w|Vice President of the United States}})&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike Pompeo}} ({{w|United States Secretary of State}})&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jim Mattis}} ({{w|United States Secretary of Defense}})&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kirstjen Nielsen}} ({{w|United States Secretary of Homeland Security}})&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jeff Sessions}} ({{w|United States Attorney General}})&lt;br /&gt;
#*''As Donald Trump did not appoint anyone to fill position #7 on Randall's line of succession, Hanks immediately followed after Sessions.''&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Tom Hanks}} (Tom Hanks) &lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jerry Brown}} (Governor of California)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Greg Abbott}} (Governor of Texas)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Andrew Cuomo}} (Governor of New York)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Rick Scott}} (Governor of Florida)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Bruce Rauner}} (Governor of Illinois)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Tom Wolf}} (Governor of Pennsylvania)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|John Kasich}} (Governor of Ohio)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Rick Snyder}} (Governor of Michigan)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Nathan Deal}} (Governor of Georgia)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Roy Cooper}} (Governor of North Carolina)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Phil Murphy}} (Governor of New Jersey)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Ralph Northam}} (Governor of Virginia)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jay Inslee}} (Governor of Washington)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Charlie Baker}} (Governor of Massachusetts)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Eric Holcomb}} (Governor of Indiana)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Doug Ducey}} (Governor of Arizona)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Bill Haslam}} (Governor of Tennessee)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike Parson}} (Governor of Missouri)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Larry Hogan}} (Governor of Maryland)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Scott Walker (politician)|Scott Walker}} (Governor of Wisconsin)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mark Dayton}} (Governor of Minnesota)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|John Hickenlooper}} (Governor of Colorado)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kay Ivey}} (Governor of Alabama)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Henry McMaster}} (Governor of South Carolina)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|John Bel Edwards}} (Governor of Louisiana)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Matt Bevin}} (Governor of Kentucky)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kate Brown}} (Governor of Oregon)&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;''Born in Spain to a member of the US Air Force, should be considered a natural-born citizen until proven otherwise.''&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mary Fallin}} (Governor of Oklahoma)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Dannel Malloy}} (Governor of Connecticut)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kim Reynolds}} (Governor of Iowa)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Phil Bryant}} (Governor of Mississippi)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Asa Hutchinson}} (Governor of Arkansas)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jeff Colyer}} (Governor of Kansas)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Gary Herbert}} (Governor of Utah)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Brian Sandoval}} (Governor of Nevada)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Susana Martinez}} (Governor of New Mexico)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jim Justice}} (Governor of West Virginia)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Pete Ricketts}} (Governor of Nebraska)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Butch Otter}} (Governor of Idaho)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|David Ige}} (Governor of Hawaii)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Paul LePage}} (Governor of Maine)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Chris Sununu}} (Governor of New Hampshire)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Gina Raimondo}} (Governor of Rhode Island)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Steve Bullock (American politician)|Steve Bullock}} (Governor of Montana)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|John Carney (politician)|John Carney}} (Governor of Delaware)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Dennis Daugaard}} (Governor of South Dakota)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Bill Walker (U.S. politician)|Bill Walker}} (Governor of Alaska)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Doug Burgum}} (Governor of North Dakota)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Phil Scott (politician)|Phil Scott}} (Governor of Vermont)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Matt Mead}} (Governor of Wyoming)&lt;br /&gt;
#*''Entries 10 and 11 on Randall's list had no eligible living members.''&lt;br /&gt;
#*''Kate McKinnon was only 34 years 5 months old at the time the comic was released, making her ineligible at that time.''&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Luis Fonsi}} (Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2017, #2 artist)&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;''Fonsi was the only eligible individual under the Billboard criterion.''&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Peggy Whitson}} (Astronaut, 665 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jeffrey Williams (astronaut)|Jeff Williams}} (Astronaut, 534 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Scott Kelly}} (Astronaut, 520 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike Fincke}} (Astronaut, 382 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike Foale}} (Astronaut, 374 days in space)&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;''Foale was born in the UK but his mother is an American, and he holds dual citizenship with both countries. It isn't clear legally whether this situation would qualify him as being a &amp;quot;natural-born&amp;quot; citizen as US courts have never definitively ruled on what the term means, so similar to Governor Kate Brown his name is included in the list as being not ruled out.''&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Serena Williams}}&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;''Serena's place on this list assumed that you do not count her withdrawal against Maria Sharapova as a ''loss''; if that counted as a loss, then subsequent entries moved up one position (as Sharapova was ineligible).''&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Tom Brady}} ({{w|National Football League Most Valuable Player Award|NFL MVP}})&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;''The MVPs of all other listed sports leagues were ineligible for the office due to age or nationality.''&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Bill Pullman}} (Bill Pullman)&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;''None of his children were old enough to become President at that time.''&lt;br /&gt;
#Rowan Lascelles (was 64th in line to the throne at the time, born in Britain to an American mother)&lt;br /&gt;
#Sophie Lascelles (was 67th in line to the throne at the time, born in Britain to an American mother)&lt;br /&gt;
#Alexander Hohenzollern (was 111th in line to the throne at the time, born to an American mother abroad)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Prince Peter of Yugoslavia|Prince Peter of Yugoslavia}} (was 113th in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Philip, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia|Philip, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia}} (was 114th in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (born 1982)|Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia}} (was 116th in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Christopher Habsburg (was 128th in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Peter Habsburg (was 132nd in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Anton Habsburg (was 133rd in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Ileana Snyder (was 134th in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Constanza Bain (was 140th in line to the throne at the time, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Count Sandor von Hohenzollern (was 143rd in line to the throne at the time, mother is American)&lt;br /&gt;
#Count Gregor von Hohenzollern (was 145th in line to the throne at the time, mother is American)&lt;br /&gt;
#Marc Saint (was 303rd in line to the throne at the time, born in US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Carla Saint (was 304th in line to the throne at the time, born in US)&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;''This only covers the first 345 people in line to the throne, including Catholics, who, if they did not convert, would be excluded, but not including illegitimate or adoptive issue. This list is based on people who could plausibly have been eligible - people 35 and older who were either born in the US or at least one of their parents was. They could still be excluded based on residence or current citizenship.''&lt;br /&gt;
#Everyone else (as would be further determined by jousting tournament) &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Based on the comic's defined criteria for the order of succession, these are the specific individuals in that order, including only people who are otherwise eligible to be the President of United States (35 year old and natural born US citizens who lived in US for last 14 years) '''as of the current date'''. (Last updated on 26 December 2024&amp;lt;!-- Assuming the last editor did it correctly... --&amp;gt;)&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;!-- For convenience, have inserted &amp;quot;Randall's List Number&amp;quot; comment, at the (start of the) appropriate mention(s), for easier future checking purposes. --&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;!-- Use &amp;quot;#*&amp;quot; (on new line) for 'empty' entries (occupies a 'line', yet does not apply a list number while at the same time not resetting the list numbering). --&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;!-- Use &amp;quot;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;quot; (as continuation of line) for extended descriptions (does not invoke or reset list numbering). --&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 1 --&amp;gt;{{w|Joe Biden}}&amp;lt;!-- Will be changed in or before Jan 2025 --&amp;gt; ({{w|President of the United States}})&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 2 --&amp;gt;{{w|Kamala Harris}} &amp;lt;!-- Will be changed in or before Jan 2025 --&amp;gt; ({{w|Vice President of the United States}})&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 3 --&amp;gt;{{w|Antony Blinken}} ({{w|United States Secretary of State}})&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 4 --&amp;gt;{{w|Lloyd Austin}} ({{w|United States Secretary of Defense}})&lt;br /&gt;
#*&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 5 --&amp;gt;''Current Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is not eligible due to not being a natural born citizen.''&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 6 --&amp;gt;{{w|Merrick Garland}} ({{w|United States Attorney General}})&lt;br /&gt;
#*&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 7 --&amp;gt;''Joe Biden&amp;lt;!-- Will change, Jan 2025 --&amp;gt; has not appointed anyone in accordance with item #7 on Randall's line of succession.''&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 8 --&amp;gt;{{w|Tom Hanks}} (Tom Hanks) &lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 9... --&amp;gt;{{w|Gavin Newsom}} (Governor of California)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Greg Abbott}} (Governor of Texas) &lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Ron DeSantis}} (Governor of Florida)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kathy Hochul}} (Governor of New York)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Josh Shapiro}} (Governor of Pennsylvania)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|J. B. Pritzker}} (Governor of Illinois)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike DeWine}} (Governor of Ohio)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Brian Kemp}} (Governor of Georgia)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Roy Cooper}} (Governor of North Carolina)&amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Gretchen Whitmer}} (Governor of Michigan)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Phil Murphy}} (Governor of New Jersey)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Glenn Youngkin}} (Governor of Virginia)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jay Inslee}} (Governor of Washington)&amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Katie Hobbs}} (Governor of Arizona)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Maura Healey}} (Governor of Massachusetts)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Bill Lee (Tennessee politician)|Bill Lee}} (Governor of Tennessee)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Eric Holcomb}} (Governor of Indiana)&amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Wes Moore}} (Governor of Maryland)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike Parson}} (Governor of Missouri)&amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Tony Evers}} (Governor of Wisconsin)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jared Polis}} (Governor of Colorado)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Tim Walz}} (Governor of Minnesota)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Henry McMaster}} (Governor of South Carolina)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kay Ivey}} (Governor of Alabama)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jeff Landry}} (Governor of Louisiana)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Andy Beshear}} (Governor of Kentucky)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Tina Kotek}} (Governor of Oregon)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kevin Stitt}} (Governor of Oklahoma)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Ned Lamont}} (Governor of Connecticut)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Spencer Cox (politician)|Spencer Cox}} (Governor of Utah)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kim Reynolds}} (Governor of Iowa)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Joe Lombardo}} (Governor of Nevada)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Sarah Huckabee Sanders}} (Governor of Arkansas)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Tate Reeves}} (Governor of Mississippi)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Laura Kelly}} (Governor of Kansas)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Michelle Lujan Grisham}} (Governor of New Mexico)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jim Pillen}} (Governor of Nebraska)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Brad Little}} (Governor of Idaho)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jim Justice}} (Governor of West Virginia) &amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Josh Green}} (Governor of Hawaii)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Chris Sununu}} (Governor of New Hampshire)&amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Janet Mills}} (Governor of Maine)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Dan McKee}} (Governor of Rhode Island)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Greg Gianforte}} (Governor of Montana)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|John Carney (politician)|John Carney}} (Governor of Delaware)&amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Kristi Noem}} (Governor of South Dakota)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Doug Burgum}} (Governor of North Dakota)&amp;lt;!--Will change in Jan 2025--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mike Dunleavy (politician)|Mike Dunleavy}} (Governor of Alaska)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Phil Scott (politician)|Phil Scott}} (Governor of Vermont)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mark Gordon (politician)|Mark Gordon}} (Governor of Wyoming)&lt;br /&gt;
#*&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 10 --&amp;gt;''No eligible living members for #10 on the list.''&lt;br /&gt;
#*&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 11 --&amp;gt;''No eligible living members for #11 on the list.''&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 12 --&amp;gt;{{w|Kate McKinnon}} (Kate McKinnon, subject to availability)&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 13 --&amp;gt;{{w|Kendrick Lamar}} (Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2024, #6 artist)&amp;lt;!-- Do not add Hozier after he turns 35 on March 17 2025, as he is Irish. --&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 14... --&amp;gt;{{w|Peggy Whitson}} (Astronaut, 675 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Jeffrey Williams (astronaut)|Jeff Williams}} (Astronaut, 534 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Sunita Williams}} (Astronaut, 525 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Mark Vande Hei}} (Astronaut, 523 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Scott Kelly}} (Astronaut, 520 days in space)&lt;br /&gt;
#*&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 15 --&amp;gt;''{{w|Serena Williams}} lost the final match of her career against {{w|Ajla Tomljanović}}, who is ineligible due to age and nationality.''&lt;br /&gt;
#*&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 16 --&amp;gt;''The most recent MVPs of all listed sports leagues are ineligible for the office due to age and/or nationality.''&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 17 --&amp;gt;{{w|Bill Pullman}} (Bill Pullman)&lt;br /&gt;
#Maesa Pullman (born 1988, first descendant of Bill Pullman via absolute primogeniture)&lt;br /&gt;
#Jack Pullman (born 1989, became eligible 2024)&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;!--For future reference: #{{w|Lewis Pullman}} (born January 29, 1993, becomes eligible in 2028)--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 18 --&amp;gt;Rowan Lascelles (currently 74th in line to the throne, born in Britain to an American mother)&lt;br /&gt;
#Tewa Lascelles (currently 75th in line to the throne, born in America)&lt;br /&gt;
#Sophie Lascelles (currently 77th in line to the throne, born in Britain to an American mother)&lt;br /&gt;
#Alexander Hohenzollern (currently 129th in line to the throne, born to an American mother abroad)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Prince Peter of Yugoslavia|Prince Peter of Yugoslavia}} (currently 131st in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Philip, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia|Philip, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia}} (currently 132nd in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (born 1982)|Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia}} (currently 135th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Christopher Habsburg (currently 149th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Saygan Habsburg (currently 151st in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Peter Habsburg (currently 154th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Anton Habsburg (currently 155th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Ileana Snyder (currently 156th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Nicholas Snyder (currently 157th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Alexandra Snyder (currently 159th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Constanza Bain (currently 164th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Count Sandor von Hohenzollern (currently 166th in line to the throne, mother is American)&lt;br /&gt;
#Count Gregor von Hohenzollern (currently 168th in line to the throne, mother is American)&lt;br /&gt;
#Hereditary Prince Alexander von Hohenzollern (currently 216th in line to the throne, born in US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Philippa von Hohenzollern (currently 217th in line to the throne, born in the US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Marc Saint (currently 337th in line to the throne, born in US)&lt;br /&gt;
#Carla Saint (currently 338th in line to the throne, born in US)&lt;br /&gt;
#*&amp;lt;!-- End note of Randall's List Number: 18 --&amp;gt;''This only covers the first 345 people in line to the throne, including Catholics, who, if they did not convert, would be excluded, but not including illegitimate or adoptive issue. Also includes several who may be ineligible due to the Royal Marriages Act. This list is based on people who could plausibly be eligible - people 35 and older who were either born in the US or at least one of their parents was. They could still be excluded based on residence or current citizenship.''&amp;lt;!-- *Not* checked for accuracy (additions/removals) during editing of 29/Aug/2024. Particularly likely to need some attention, though. --&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 19 --&amp;gt;{{w|Miki Sudo}} (Women’s champion of the 2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest; listed first due to being closer to Europa at birth) &amp;lt;!-- someone check results of July 4, 2025 for this and the next! --&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
#{{w|Patrick Bertoletti}} (Men's champion of the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest)&lt;br /&gt;
#&amp;lt;!-- Randall's List Number: 20 --&amp;gt;Everyone else (through jousting tournament elimination)&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;''Assumes that the number of eligible US citizens does not exceed 536,870,912.''&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Transcript==&lt;br /&gt;
: A proposal for a new presidential line of succession&lt;br /&gt;
: Current politics aside, most experts agree the existing process is flawed. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 is probably unconstitutional on several counts, and there are many practical issues with the system as well.&lt;br /&gt;
: &amp;lt;span style=&amp;quot;color:gray&amp;quot;&amp;gt;(For more, see the surprisingly gripping ''Second Report of the Continuity of Government Commission'', June 2009.)&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
: Proposed line of succession:&lt;br /&gt;
:# President&lt;br /&gt;
:# Vice president&lt;br /&gt;
:# Secretary of State&lt;br /&gt;
:# Secretary of Defense&lt;br /&gt;
:# Secretary of Homeland Security&lt;br /&gt;
:# Attorney General&lt;br /&gt;
:# Five people who do not live in Washington DC, nominated at the start of the president's term and confirmed by the Senate&lt;br /&gt;
:# Tom Hanks&lt;br /&gt;
:# State Governors, in descending order of state population at last census&lt;br /&gt;
:# Anyone who won an Oscar for playing a governor&lt;br /&gt;
:# Anyone who won a Governor's award for playing someone named Oscar&lt;br /&gt;
:# Kate McKinnon, if available&lt;br /&gt;
:# Billboard year-end Hot 100 singles artists #1 through #10 (for groups, whoever is credited first in name, liner notes, etc)&lt;br /&gt;
:# The top 5 US astronauts in descending order of total spaceflight time&lt;br /&gt;
:# Serena Williams (or, if she lost her most recent match, whoever beat her)&lt;br /&gt;
:# The most recent season NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL MVPs&lt;br /&gt;
:# Bull Pullman and his descendants by absolute primogeniture&lt;br /&gt;
:# The entire line of succession to the British throne&lt;br /&gt;
:# The current champion of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest&lt;br /&gt;
:# All other US citizens, chosen by a 29-round single-elimination Jousting tournament&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{comic discussion}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Politics]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>172.68.245.228</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2988:_Maslow%27s_Pyramid&amp;diff=350873</id>
		<title>Talk:2988: Maslow's Pyramid</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2988:_Maslow%27s_Pyramid&amp;diff=350873"/>
				<updated>2024-09-21T03:53:24Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;172.68.245.228: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Oh wow, first post! {{unsigned|RadiantRainwing}}&lt;br /&gt;
: Congratulations on learning how to post![[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.228|172.68.245.228]] 03:40, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
The 20% figure is incorrect.  The lower levels[[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.228|172.68.245.228]] 03:40, 21 September 2024 (UTC) of the pyramid have more volume than the upper levels.  By my arithmetic, the breakdown is (rounded) 1%, 6%, 15%, 30%, and 49%, so the &amp;quot;safety&amp;quot; level provides 30% of his needs. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 00:27, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
:Plus the bottom layer ought to get partial credit for supplying basic shelter. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 00:29, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
:: I question this Cueball's ability to get anything okay enough.&lt;br /&gt;
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.228|172.68.245.228]] 03:40, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
Oh crud. What did I do that I think totally messed up the attributions? 172.68.245.228 [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.228|172.68.245.228]] 03:53, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>172.68.245.228</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2988:_Maslow%27s_Pyramid&amp;diff=350872</id>
		<title>Talk:2988: Maslow's Pyramid</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2988:_Maslow%27s_Pyramid&amp;diff=350872"/>
				<updated>2024-09-21T03:40:57Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;172.68.245.228: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&amp;lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Oh wow, first post! {{unsigned|RadiantRainwing}}&lt;br /&gt;
: Congratulations on learning how to post![[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.228|172.68.245.228]] 03:40, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
The 20% figure is incorrect.  The lower levels[[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.228|172.68.245.228]] 03:40, 21 September 2024 (UTC) of the pyramid have more volume than the upper levels.  By my arithmetic, the breakdown is (rounded) 1%, 6%, 15%, 30%, and 49%, so the &amp;quot;safety&amp;quot; level provides 30% of his needs. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 00:27, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
:Plus the bottom layer ought to get partial credit for supplying basic shelter. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 00:29, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
:: I question this Cueball's ability to get anything okay enough.&lt;br /&gt;
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.228|172.68.245.228]] 03:40, 21 September 2024 (UTC)&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>172.68.245.228</name></author>	</entry>

	</feed>