Friday, September 15, 2017

The book "What If?" and why you should totally buy it

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical QuestionsWhat If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that doesn't have a clear genre. Physics humor? I dunno. Whatever--it's a lot of fun, and laugh-out-loud funny. (That's not just me talking. I could hear my son across the house when he read it.) The author is brilliant, able to mix great comedic writing with high-level science. It's like Mythbusters and Cracked and Big Bang Theory and a Michael Crichton novel all rolled up into a kind of demented physics lesson. If that appeals, then you're going to like this book.

A hypothetical like "What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% of the speed of light?" is answered with a serious essay--hard numbers, real science. (The short answer is that an expanding ball of plasma would destroy the batter, the backstop, the infield... and about a square mile around the diamond.) Though the questions are taken seriously--"How long could a nuclear submarine last in orbit?"--the answers are ironic. Still accurate, but funny. (Part of the answer: "Nuclear submarines use electricity to extract oxygen from water. In space, there's no water, [citation needed] so they wouldn't be able to manufacture more air...") When discussing things some animals are good at, he writes, "Horned lizards shoot jets of blood from their eyes for distances of up to 5 feet. I don't know why they do this because whenever I reach the phrase 'shoot jets of blood from their eyes' in an article I just stop there and stare at it until I need to lie down..." That's the kind of smart-ass writing that I really like. And it's probably not just me.

What would happen if the ocean drained away? How far would an arrow go with air but no gravity? What would happen if your DNA disappeared? His take on these absurd questions is as entertaining as it is instructive. Even his stick-figure drawings help tell the story. It's like having a crazy-brilliant NASA guy at your party answering the dumbest questions you can think of.

But, you know, drunk.

Highly recommended.

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