What If?

What If?

Hardcover
4.2106

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Beschreibung

From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, a hilarious and informative book of popular science that provides answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask.Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following.Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last?In pursuit of answers for these fascinating thought experiments, 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, complemented by signature xkcd comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with updated and expanded versions of the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? will be required reading for xkcd fans and anyone who loves STEM books and pondering the hypothetical.Randall Munroe's fully-researched, deeply unserious answers explore:- Absurd Science: From draining the oceans to building a periodic table out of the actual elements, discover the often-explosive consequences of taking silly ideas seriously.- Hypothetical Questions: What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? Or if a robot apocalypse finally happened?- Physics Explained: Munroe breaks down complex topics like relativistic physics and thermodynamics with clarity, wit, and detailed computer simulations.- Signature Stick-Figure Comics: Each answer is complemented by the iconic xkcd comics that make complex science accessible and hilarious.

Buchinformationen

Haupt-Genre
Fachbücher
Sub-Genre
Mathematik & Naturwissenschaften
Format
Hardcover
Seitenzahl
352
Preis
28.50 €

Beiträge

8
Alle
4

Fun read!

I'm not a person that is that much into physics/science, but this was quite a fun read! The author makes it understandable, even if you don't have a scientific background and covers a range of fun questions.

4

A really good insight in how things could probably work, but practically it would be either not possible or a high risk for the human life. Also good to read if you don't have such a big concentration, because the chapters/questions are mostly answered in about 4-5 pages.

5

Eine Zusammenstellung verschiedener Fragen, die irgendwie naturwissenschaftlich sind. Die Antwort auf diese Fragen ist aber so witzig und so treffend formuliert, dass einem die Naturwissenschaft darin gar nicht schwer fällt.

5

"What if?" answers hypothetical questions with scientific knowledge, humor, and comic illustrations. If you've spent any time on the internet, you've likely seen the author's illustrations before, and the book delivers on everything you imagine coming from xkcd in a book. An unintended side effect of reading this in 2023 and 2024, almost 10 years after it was initially published, is that it's an absurd experience to see the quarantine question answered as a hypothetical unrelated to the reality we live in now (see the chapter "Common Cold"). Incredibly enjoyable, funny, and you even learn a few things along the way.

5

Funny, witty, nerdy and informative. Some articles where difficult for me to understand, however it was well explained. I loves the references to Star Wars, lotr and firefly. Also I learned some things just from reading this book (eg how chemotherapy works) All in all a big recommendation to all my friends with curiosity and/or an interest in modern science (...and a weird sense of humor probably)

5

Sehr zu empfehlen! Sehr gut verständlich und extrem witzig. Auch wenn man noch nie großartig Kontakt zu Physik, Chemie und co. hatte, kann man allen Erklärungen super folgen. Top!

2

2/5 There are few books on my shelves that I have put down as many times as I did with this one. You would like this, if: you are skilled in science - whatsoever. Minus biology, probably, because I’m good with that and it didn’t help. See, my problem is, I did not gain a thing from this. It was too academic for me to grasp many answers (or the questions at times) and it seldom touched a topic I am privately interested in. For a long ass time this was the reason I thought I hated non-fiction (which I don’t) and I’m an idiot (definitely true). I hand out compliments for the illustrations and the general humour, outside of science-jokes, which was super nice and I’m sure the author is a delight to be around, this just really wasn’t the book for me, personally. It might totally be for you, though!

4

This book is awesome. Randall Munroe does a really good job with explaining science to everyone (everyone who knows xkcd already knows this). The topics are short but informative. You always get way more information than you thought, and with its on point humor it's just fun to read. I really learned some new stuff, and even though most of the topics are really crazy, I already could shine with some knowledge or facts around my friends. I really can recommend this to everyone. Fun!

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