what if?

what if? is a blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted every Tuesday. As per the site's tagline, the purpose of the site is "answering your hypothetical questions with physics, every Tuesday". On the blog, Randall discusses uses his degree in physics and strong scientific background to discuss hypothetical physics questions apparently submitted by readers.

The questions Randall tackles range from realistic possibilities (e.g. the probability of achieving a perfect SAT score by guessing) to completely fictional questions (e.g. How much Force power can Yoda output?).

In his explanations, Randall, often using diagrams in an xkcd style. He also tends to take the questions extremely literally to the point of humor. For example, in 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 "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."