Description

SPECIAL UPDATED 10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE MILLION-SELLING POP SCIENCE CLASSIC

WHAT IF… one man decided to answer all the unanswerable questions, using science.

‘Randall Munroe is nerd royalty’ BEN GOLDACRE
‘Brilliant’ ROLLING STONE
‘Smart answers to silly questions: Munroe reveals all’ GUARDIAN
‘Required reading’ NEW YORK TIMES

Randall Munroe is the creator of the wildly popular xkcd.com. His readers ask him a lot of strange questions:

What would happen if absolutely everyone jumped at the same time?
How could we build a Lego bridge between London and New York?
What if my DNA vanished?
How long could a submarine last in space?
What are the odds of meeting my soulmate?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations and consults everyone from astronauts to nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)

Welcome back to the mind-blowing world WHAT IF? . . . Now with 10 x the science and 10 x the jokes

Featuring brand-new 2-colour annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition will leave you feeling much smarter, whether you have a Nobel Prize or not.

Publisher Review

Smart answers to silly questions: Randall Munroe reveals all * GUARDIAN * A masterclass and a great deal of fun… Like all the best lessons, you only realise how much you’ve learnt once you’ve finished it * THE ECONOMIST * I love XKCD’s What If — ‘Dear Abby for mad scientists’ * NEIL GAIMAN * With this book, you’re a kid with a chemistry set all over again. . . required reading for all grown-ups and a fun reminder that science is really, really cool. * REGISTER * Essential * NATURE * Expert research and accessible wit… a favourite among both geeks and laymen * TIME * Brilliant * ROLLING STONE * Delightfully free-wheeling and whimsical… despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, you really don’t have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy What If? * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * Brilliant, funny and fascinating * GRAEME LE SAUX, DAILY EXPRESS * The best bathroom book you’ll ever buy… Eminently approachable and full of beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences. The physics is real; and so is the emotional content * NEWSWEEK * It will satisfy the curious and arouse curiosity in anyone who’s not – and it’s got great jokes * IRISH TIMES * Totally brilliant * TIM HARFORD * XKCD is nerd royalty, the alpha dork, there’s no geek more widely cited and loved * BEN GOLDACRE * What If? is brilliant, scientifically rigorous and utterly absurd… It. Is. A. Triumph * BOINGBOING * Fantastic… What If? has solved my gift dilemmas for a large group of people . . . . Here’s a “What If?” question from me: What if everyone on the planet simultaneously bought a copy of this book, stopped what they were doing and read it cover to cover, would modern civilization and our global economy collapse? It’s an experiment worth trying * HUFFINGTON POST * Wonderful and incredibly fun * AMERICAN SCIENTIST * Thoughtful, scientific, and highly entertaining * PARADE * If you’re the kind of person whose brain whizzes with questions, What If? may calm the noise. Randall Munroe’s done all the hard work for you * SHORTLIST * Dangerously absorbing . . . I could not think of a better book * VARSITY * The reader is left constantly subject to outbursts of laughter, lin gering doubts concerning the sanity of the human race, and an ever-growing fascination with the way our world and the universe works . . . Though science geeks will be the first to acknowledge Munroe’s greatness, even people suffering from a chronic hatred towards anything concerned with math will find the humour and absurdity of What If? hard to resist * THE STUDENT *