what if?

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Not to be confused with 17: What If.

whatifbanner.jpg

what if? is a blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted every week. On the blog, Randall uses his degree in physics and strong scientific background to discuss hypothetical physics questions apparently submitted by readers. Since 2014 , there's also a book of the blog.

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 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."

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 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 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.

This site is not under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License like xkcd is.

The book

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Maybe give the most (popular) articles their own link. That would be nice. A full list of all articles can be viewed here
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Randall announced his what if? book on 12 March 2014 in the blag. It was published on September 2, 2014.

The general cover of the book

It is just like 'xkcd:volume 0' a compilation of questions from the website.

Summary

The summary on the back of the book reads:

Randall Munroe left NASA in 2005 to start up his hugely popular site XKCD 'a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language' which offers a witty take on the world of science and geeks. It now has 600,000 to a million page hits daily. Every now and then, Munroe would get emails asking him to arbitrate a science debate. 'My friend and I were arguing about what would happen if a bullet got struck by lightning, and we agreed that you should resolve it . . . ' He liked these questions so much that he started up What If.

  • If your cells suddenly lost the power to divide, how long would you survive?
  • How dangerous is it, really, to be in a swimming pool in a thunderstorm?
  • If we hooked turbines to people exercising in gyms, how much power could we produce?
  • What if everyone only had one soulmate?
  • When (if ever) did the sun go down on the British empire?
  • How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?
  • What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, studded with memorable cartoons and infographics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. Far more than a book for geeks, WHAT IF: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much the smarter for having read.

The page currently has a note that "What If updates are temporarily on hold, and will resume on July 14th, 2015 at 7:49:59 AM EDT." This is the date and time that the New Horizons probe will achieve its closest approach to Pluto.

Articles

  • Relativistic baseball
  • SAT guessing
  • Yoda
  • A mole of moles
  • Robot apocalypse
  • Glass half empty
  • Everybody out
  • Everybody jump
  • Soul mates
  • Cassini
  • Droppings
  • Rain drop
  • Laser pointer
  • Short answer section
  • Mariana trench explosion
  • Today's topic: Lightning
  • Green cows
  • BB gun
  • Tie vote
  • Diamond
  • Machine gun jetpack
  • Cost of pennies
  • Short answer section II
  • Model rockets
  • Three wise men
  • Leap seconds
  • Death rate
  • Steak drop
  • Spent fuel pool
  • Interplanetary Cessna
  • FedEx bandwidth
  • Hubble
  • Ships
  • Twitter
  • Hairdryer
  • Cornstarch
  • Supersonic stereo
  • Voyager
  • Hockey puck
  • Pressure cooker
  • Go west
  • Longest sunset
  • Train loop
  • High throw
  • ISS music video
  • Bowling ball
  • Alien astronomers
  • Sunset on the British Empire
  • Sunless Earth
  • Extreme boating
  • Free fall
  • Bouncy balls
  • Drain the oceans
  • Drain the oceans: Part II
  • Random sneeze call
  • Restraining an airplane
  • Dropping a mountain
  • Orbital speed
  • Updating a printed Wikipedia
  • Signs of life
  • Speed bump
  • Falling with helium
  • Google datacenters on punchcards
  • Rising steadily
  • Twitter timeline height
  • 500MPH
  • Expanding earth
  • Little planet
  • Facebook of the dead
  • The constant groundskeeper
  • Stirring tea
  • Loneliest human
  • Lethal neutrinos
  • Soda planet
  • Phone keypad
  • Reading every book
  • Growth rate
  • T-rex calories
  • Lake tea
  • Pile of viruses
  • Catch!
  • Hitting a comet
  • Star sand
  • Paint the Earth
  • Rocket golf
  • Far-travelling objects
  • Enforced by radar
  • Soda sequestration
  • Tungsten countertop
  • Great tree, great axe
  • Faucet power
  • One-second day
  • Windshield raindrops
  • Billion-story building
  • Pyramid energy
  • $2 undecillion lawsuit
  • Burning pollen
  • Blood alcohol
  • Starlings
  • WWII films
  • Plastic dinosaurs
  • Keyboard power
  • Vanishing water
  • Global snow
  • Cannibalism
  • Ink molecules
  • Letter to mom
  • Expensive shoebox
  • Into the blue
  • Walking New York
  • All the money
  • Balloon car
  • Visit every state
  • Antimatter
  • Into the Sun
  • No-rules NASCAR
  • Distant death
  • Physical salary
  • Laser umbrella
  • Alternate universe what ifs
  • Frozen rivers
  • Lava lamp
  • Fairy demographics
  • Lunar swimming
  • Bowling ball
  • Stairs
  • Tug of war
  • Zippo phone
  • Black hole moon
  • Snow removal
  • Microwaves
  • Hotter than average
  • Flagpole
  • Space burial
  • Digging downward
  • Spiders vs. the Sun