What If? 2

Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

No cover

Randall Munroe: What If? 2 (2023, Hodder & Stoughton)

English language

Published Oct. 4, 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton.

ISBN:
978-1-3998-1114-9
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (3 reviews)

A second collection of Fermi problems so ridiculous that Fermi would be disgusted.

4 editions

Zippy read, but the YT channel might be the ideal form for these

3 stars

Read through this over the course of a weeklong camping trip. I've been enjoying these since they first started as blog posts, these continue that trend. Some of my favorites include Losing Weight by reducing Earth's size (and gravity), and why compasses don't just point towards the nearest MRI machine.

That said, I reluctantly feel the best format for these explainers might be the YouTube channel (which has published many of these scenarios). The narration and videos are well-done and provide a similar quick bite of pop-sci, in a more accessible way. But if you do read through the book, don't skip the foot notes. One of my favorites is the footnote for "It's very hot close to the Sun" cited as "Santana, C., I.Shur, R. Thomas, Smooth (1999)"

Subjects

  • Science, miscellanea
  • Science, popular works