Luckily for him! Easily one of my top 10 most entertaining books, especially in audio form, ever. Anyone who thinks science can't be both fascinating and laugh-out-loud hilarious needs to listen to this. I just don't recommend having anything you really need to do for the next six or so hours. Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why? My only possible complaint would be it wasn't long enough, I want more.
I love Wil's reading style he was able to inject just the right amount of sarcasm into the book. Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting? If you like playing around with over-the-top thought experiments and truly strange ideas, with realistic science, this a great book for you. The best comparison I have is Mary Roach And I always give kudos to narrators of scienc-y works when they don't stumble over or mispronounce obscure technical words First of all it's read by Wil Wheaton, awesome!
If you're not familiar with who that is then you're probably expecting a completely different book than anything written by Munroe. After you hear the whiz of jokes flying over your head enough you kind of go with it. Now imagine a few hours of that and you'll kind of get what this books is like listening to it.
While Munroe does an excellent and accurate job I think it's accurate, if not at least well described of explaining the "what if" scenarios, the mathematical explanations are lengthy and unless you're accustomed to graduate level physics lectures stands a very good chance of inducing a "zone out" until the scenario returns to a narrative laymen description.
Don't let this deter you from giving it a shot! You'll get the idea of every one of the "what if" scenarios I promise you. Great prep for an interview at Google. This book poses a wide range of questions, most of which can only be answered in a conceptual fashion using equations few of us are very familiar with.
The fun part is when Randall Munroe attaches equations to help the listener understand how to approach an answer. My favorite question: What is the probability of calling someone, saying gesundheit when they said hello, and discovering that they just sneezed. Super narration too. Would you consider the audio edition of What If?
This book has now made the short list as one of my all-time favorite audio books. It was informative, hilarious, and just downright fun. My wife and I listened to it while on a road trip, and it kept us entertained as if it were a classic novel.
Wil Wheaton's narration is absolutely perfect, and actually inspired us to go out and buy the print version of the book which I also highly recommend. Who was your favorite character and why? The Netherlands Wil Wheaton's narration, in addition to giving it the "nerd cred" it deserves, narrates the book absolutely perfectly. It's the little subtleties like the way he changes his tone for footnotes, or gets excited about blowing up the moon with a super laser.
It really brings a book, which otherwise has no characters, to life. Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry? We listened to this while driving. We actually had to stop, and pull over at one point from laughing so hard.
Oh, I loved this audiobook My only complaint: It ended too soon. Highly recommended. Nearly Everyone Would Die! There are certain things on this planet that you seemed to do fine without, but as soon as you discover, you can't now do without.
Diet Dr. Pepper, David Foster Wallace, dark chocolate covered cherries all fit into this category. So, too, does Randall Munroe. He seems to occupy a space near, but not on, that vacated by Gary Larson when the great Gary Larson stopped drawing the Far Side January 1, If you are unimpressed by Gary Larsen or the Far Side or do not know who he is or what I'm talking about, hell man, read no further. This book is not for you. I'm not trying to suggest that Gary Larson and Randall Munroe occupy the same ground.
They are very different. Their approach to science is different. Their technique. They are both worshiped by nerds. They are nerd gods. In this godhead of scientific nerd entertainers also exists Bill Nye. Anyway, these are binary science artists. You either get them and love them or you don't. If you don't, well congrats, I really hope someday you will recognized what you did to our beautiful world by voting for Trump. Anyway, this book.
This book is filled with drawings and explanations by Randall Munroe on topics as diverse as: "Q. What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? What would happen if you were to gather a mole unit of measurement of moles the small furry critter in one place?
How much Force power can Yoda output? How high can a human throw something? It is the essentials of science. Science is always jumping into absurd places asking weird questions. Monroe capture the joy of this experience and he integrates the reader into it. He is a translator like most scientists are of complex methods into a narrative of explanation. He just takes several absurd, but still logical steps further. I find his book about one standard deviation better than similar attempts at similar things.
Both are using humor and science and the strategy of funky questions. There are a couple differences, that matter. Mark Leyner isn't a scientist. He's a soft postmodernist author that is playing doctor explaining awkward questons.
Monroe is a scientist that is using the scientific method and humor to explain absurd, and sometimes practically nonsense questions. While both of these books can be considered humor books, I tend to favor the one written by a scientist who can draw kinda dinosaurs and a pyramid of giraffes.
Personal preference I guess. Anyway, if you or anyone in your family is a nerd, or raising a nerd, and enjoy absurdity and funky questions, well, this is almost a perfect book. If not, go ahead and try and to convince me that your vote for Trump isn't going to be considered the beginning of the end of our civilization. You have no soul. Add to Cart failed. Please try again later. I was sure about a would do. I should have just contacted Randall Munroe. The author of this book is an Internet cartoonist, not a health or safety expert.
He likes it when things catch fire or explode, which means he does not have your best interests in mind. Just watch out for salmonella. And the Andromeda Strain. How would the Earth change as the water was being drained? To see how, you need to read for yourself. Then things would get interesting. But with world electricity consumption pushing 2 terawatts, it would take a hundred million Yodas to meet our demands. View all 21 comments. Jan 15, Paul Bryant rated it liked it Shelves: science.
And a person called Kenneth asked What if every day, every human had a 1 per cent chance of being turned into a turkey, and every turkey had a one percent chance of being turned into a human? Randall does not provide a response to that one but I would have said Kenneth, if only life were like that.
Everybody likes this book and I liked half of it, the other half was so far over my head it might have been a distant Andean condor croaking Sanskrit into a Bluetooth headset.
Some of the stuff Randall devotes pages of detailed analysis to did not tickle my ivories, like What would happen if a hair dryer with continuous power were turned on and put into an airtight 1 x 1 x 1-meter box? I mean, get a life. Who the flook cares about a hair dryer in a box?
But many are very interesting. He tackles the old chestnut What would happen of everyone on Earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same time? In regard to the jump and the landing itself, not so much would result. But then he imagines the implications of all those people trying to get back home from Rhode Island. If this mass jumping event was actually staged it would cause the immediate termination of civilisation and the death of billions.
The edge of the crowd spreads outward into southern Massachusetts and Connecticut. Any two people who meet are unlikely to have a language in common, and almost nobody knows the area. The state becomes a chaotic patchwork of coalescing and collapsing social hierarchies. Violence is common. You keep thinking of your own absurd questions — How many soldier ants would it take to chew through my leg in one hour?
And would I survive? Well, imagine a person was chained to one of those and had an infinite amount of small change within arms reach.
Then imagine the vending machine gets refilled by the usual contractor in the usual way who never notices the chained person. So : how long would it take the captive to die from a constant diet of crap? If they were only eating chocs and crisps and drinking cokes? A month? Six months?
A YEAR?? I may have to launch a practical experiment. View all 22 comments. Aug 29, Diane rated it really liked it Shelves: humorous , science , nonfiction. This book opens with the best disclaimer I have ever seen: "Do not try any of this at home.
The publisher and the author disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects resulting, directly or indirectly, from information contained in this book. Don't get too close -- these things could kill ya! On his website, he takes "absurd hypothetical questions" from readers and tries to answer some of them.
Here are some of my favorite questions in this book: 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? If every human somehow simply disappeared from the face of the Earth, how long would it be before the last artificial light source would go out? How long could a nuclear submarine last in orbit?
From what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground? If everyone on the planet stayed away from each other for a couple of weeks, wouldn't the common cold be wiped out? Which US state is actually flown over the most? Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off-planet? How high can a human throw something? When, if ever, will the bandwidth of the Internet surpass that of FedEx? How quickly would the oceans drain if a circular portal 10 meters in radius leading into space were created at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean?
How many Lego bricks would it take to build a bridge capable of carrying traffic from London to New York? Have that many Lego bricks been manufactured? What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off? If you are interested to know any of the answers to those questions, this book is for you!
What made this so much fun, aside from the ridiculous questions, is Munroe's sense of humor. Several times I laughed out loud at his drawings and his answers, which is not something that usually happens when I'm reading about science. Oh, and be sure to read his footnotes, which have even more jokes.
I think this book would be a great gift for kids who love to ask crazy questions about how the world works. I think I would have loved it when I was It's the miracle of Goodreads! View all 14 comments. Nov 22, Riku Sayuj rated it really liked it Shelves: science-gen , dystopian , humor. Org Petition: Despicable Munroe The International Astronomical Union recently named an asteroid after Randall Munroe; asteroid Munroe is big enough to cause a mass extinction if it ever hits Earth.
Not that he needs an asteroid to do that. He has his minions devising millions of ways to do it, on a subversive site they call xkcd.
This book is a set of leaked manuals. It should be clear to all how dangerous this guy and his site really is. But all Government agencies fail to heed Change. But all Government agencies fail to heed my warnings. I exhort you to read this and then contact your local representative immediately. We can stop him. If you still have doubts, let me remind you of numerous disaster movies — there is always only ONE GUY who saw it coming!
Do you really want to ignore me? Eager for your support, Thanks. View all 12 comments. Sep 04, Philip rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction. One of the things that's nice about goodreads is that it lets you embed pictures.
I'm pretty sure that if you're here, you already know about xkcd. But hey, why the heck not? The book comes from his "what if" blog, which is also very good. I took the book into work with One of the things that's nice about goodreads is that it lets you embed pictures.
I took the book into work with me to show it around - you know - hipster-esque and what not. I'm reading this trendy, new book first. But the guys at my table were all like, "Yeah I can see myself reading like 2 or 3 of these and then putting the book down Then I looked at the book a little bit more closely, flipped through a little bit and thought, "Huh That's probably what I'm going to do This is mostly because kids in arguments try to prove points by using them stupidly.
You know: "But what if Hitler hadn't killed the Jews? Would you like him then? You have to admit, it's pretty crazy that we've given this guy a holiday, right? So, I took the book home - slightly shamed that I hadn't realized it was more for coffee tables than actual reading. But then I picked it up and read a couple. And a couple more. Next thing I know, a couple of days later the book is done - and I really enjoyed it. And I learned a lot. Well presumably.
I did come on here hoping that some of the reviews would challenge Munroe's math. Or any of his conclusions. I mean, if I did on a couple of these, there are bound to be some flame wars in the comments sections of these review right? If I could take issue with a couple I am NOT a math guy. In case there aren't any flame wars yet, let me start one: On page in answer to the question, "If everyone on the planet stayed away from each other for a couple of weeks, wouldn't the common cold be wiped out?
These viruses take over the cells in your nose and throat and use them to produce more viruses. After a few days, your immune system notices and destroys it, but not before you infect, on average, one other person. If the average were less than one, the virus would die out. If it were more than one, eventually everyone would have a cold all the time.
But that can't be right? Can it? It's tough to tell whether he's serious or not, because sometimes the footnotes are jokes, and other times they're not. But here, it made me question the math of the rest of the book. He's very meticulous in his calculations throughout, but here he doesn't factor in seasons, or how vast the globe is Wouldn't it make more sense that when we have the virus we average more than one infection - and then people stay away from us - and are more cautious in general - which is why the number goes back down but doesn't die out completely?
It took me a while to get over this, undermining the whole book for a couple seconds. Seriously, if he had just said "but not before you infect, on average, on other person. Of course, I doubted him on other footnotes: pg "Although it'sa little different, if you drip superglue on cotton thread, it will catch fire. That's another of his jokes? Munroe also interspersed "Weird and worrying questions from the what if? Honestly, most of these weren't any weirder than the questions he was already answering.
And sometimes I think they only seemed weird, but I think he may have missed the trail. Like on page , the question is, "What is the probability that if I am stabbed by a knife in my torso that it won't hit anything vital and I'll live? So, Thomas, the person who asked the question wherever you are - I don't think you're a weirdo. Yeah, yeah, yeah Although, I'd be willing to wager if anyone can travel through time, it's Munroe. He's sure studying that stuff.
And Einstein. And Schrodinger. Also, probably J. Robert Oppenheimer. And the book is so dated. He mentions the "new-fangled writing section" of the SAT on page That was dropped way back in Finally, Munroe - if you're reading this - and I know you are just take the plunge and watch Dragon Ball Z already. You may hate it, but don't knock it till you've tried it, right?
Seriously - loved the book. Thought I would like it, didn't think I would love it. Didn't think I would read it the whole way through - finished it in under 3 days. Also, shouldn't this go under like Since the questions are hypothetical Isn't this exactly what science-fiction is? It's just not told in narrative form in this case? View all 19 comments. Nov 09, Nandakishore Mridula rated it it was amazing.
An apple fell on Newton's head. And lo, the theory of gravitation was born. The story is apocryphal in all probability, like George Washington and the cherry tree.
But it does illustrate an important fact. Scientific enquiry starts with seemingly absurd questions. According to Wikipedia, his site gets 70 million hits per month. And reading this book, it's not hard to see why. Munroe reminds us that above all, science is fun.
The questions have to be seen to be believed. Randall Munroe takes all the questions seriously - and tries to provide "scientific" answers to each. This book is a collection of such questions and answers.
The answers are sometimes tongue-in-cheek, but there is the spirit of serious scientific investigation experiment - observation - interpretation in each: accompanied by his signature stick figures and one-liners, they are a delight to read.
How would the Earth change as the water is being drained? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else? There are many, many more. Or you can just hop over to Munroe's site and read these - and many more - there.
You can even submit an absurd question yourself. This book is pure bliss. View all 8 comments. Jul 09, Lindsey Rey rated it it was amazing Shelves: nonfiction , funny , I highly recommend taking the audiobook route for this one unless you absolutely love very technical science.
Wil Wheaton's narration was excellent and he delivered Munroe's humor perfectly! I loved this so much I bought a hard copy for my coffee table. View all 3 comments. It was okay, after several "stories" it got boring. For me, it would be better just as a blog, to read "story" or two per week, not all at once. It turns out I got a lot of soulmates out there. View 1 comment. Shelves: lit-american , humor , natural-science , have , reviews-liked.
What if … every Goodreads review had to be written in a randomly determined time? What per cent of submitted reviews would end with a completed sentence? Well, this amounts to the question of, what per cent of reviewers would simply stop typing when the time ran out, instead of finishing up what they were saying and ignoring the stupid rule. But there could be a correlation or inverse correlation? Okay, the clock is started, Author Randall Munroe writes the on-line comic strip xkcd.
See example above. A couple hints for looking at xkcd. Their gender is shown by types of hairdos on the females. In the strip above, the sociologist, chemist, and mathematician are girls. That won't happen with the cartoon above.
No time to count them. Each page has a couple questions, with no response by the author, except for sometimes a cartoon drawing, a stick figure saying something. What is the total nutritional value calories, fat, vitamins, minerals, etc. What temperature would a chainsaw or other cutting implement need to be at to instantly cauterize any injuries inflicted with it?
One of these that I wished he had answered was this one. The answer isn't Chimborazo or Everest. The fastest point turns out to be the peak of Mt. Cayambe, a volcano north of Chimborazo. And now you know. Cayambe's southern slope also happens to be the highest point on Earth's surface directly on the Equator. I have a lot of mountain facts. Even though the end of the pole is moving slowly relative to the Earth as a whole, it's moving very fast relative to the surface.
Asking how fast the pole is moving relative to the surface is effectively the same as asking what the "ground speed" of the Moon is. This is tricky to calculate, because the Moon's ground speed varies over time in a complicated way. The Moon's ground speed varies pretty regularly, making a kind of sine wave. It peaks twice every month as it passes over the fast-moving equator, then reaches a minimum when it's over the slower-moving tropics. Its orbital speed also changes depending on whether it's at the close or far point in its orbit.
This leads to a roughly sine-wave shaped ground speed:. Ok, fine. There's one other cycle we can take into account to really nail down the Moon's ground speed. This means that the Moon's latitude changes the way the Sun's does, moving from the northern tropics to the southern tropics twice a year.
However, the Moon's orbit is also tilted, and this tilt rotates on an When the Moon is over a point farther from the equator, it has a lower "ground speed," so the lower end of the sine wave goes lower. Here's the plot of the Moon's "ground speed" over the next few decades:. The Moon's top speed stays pretty constant, but the lowest speed rises and falls with an When you do finally enter the atmosphere, you'll be coming down near the edge of the tropics.
Try to avoid the tropical jet stream , an upper-level air current which blows in the same direction the Earth rotates. Regardless of where you come down, you'll need to contend with supersonic winds, so you should wear lots of protective gear.
Make sure you're tightly attached to the pole, since the wind and various shockwaves will be violently battering and jolting you around. People often say, "It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end.
At some point, to reach the ground, you're going to have to let go of the pole. For obvious reasons, you don't want to jump directly onto the ground while moving at Mach 1. Instead, you should probably wait until you're somewhere near airline cruising altitude, where the air is still thin, so it's not pulling at you too hard—and let go of the pole.
Then, as the air carries you away and you fall toward the Earth, you can open your parachute. Then, at last, you can drift safely to the ground, having traveled from the Moon to the Earth completely under your own muscle power.
When you're done, remember to remove the fire pole. That thing is definitely a safety hazard. Prev Earth-Moon Fire Pole 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?
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