What If?
Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
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What If?
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Narrated by:
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Wil Wheaton
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Written by:
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Randall Munroe
About this listen
From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd comes this hilarious and informative book of 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 of the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there were a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last?
In pursuit of answers, 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 listening for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2014 Randall Munroe (P)2014 Blackstone AudiobookYou may also enjoy...
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What If? 2
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The millions of people around the world who loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the Moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer door at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on an erupting geyser? Okay, if you insist.
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1 out of 5 stars
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1 out of 5 stars
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History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines to pandemics, from tornadoes to the Chicxulub asteroid, the odds of human survival are slim but not zero—at least, not if you know where to go and what to do. In each chapter of How to Survive History, Cody Cassidy explores how to survive one of history’s greatest threats: getting eaten by dinosaurs, being destroyed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, succumbing to the lava flows of Pompeii, being devoured by the Donner Party, and more.
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Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.
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Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A gleefully gruesome look at the actual science behind the most outlandish, cartoonish, and impossible deaths you can imagine. What would happen if you took a swim outside a deep-sea submarine wearing only a swimsuit? How long could you last if you stood on the surface of the sun? How far could you actually get in digging a hole to China? Paul Doherty, senior staff scientist at San Francisco's famed Exploratorium Museum, and writer Cody Cassidy explore the real science behind these and other fantastical scenarios.
Written by: Cody Cassidy, and others
-
What If? 2
- Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
- Written by: Randall Munroe
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
The millions of people around the world who loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the Moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer door at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on an erupting geyser? Okay, if you insist.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Boring with kid focused questions
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-02-17
Written by: Randall Munroe
-
How To
- Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
- Written by: Randall Munroe
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive, and inadvisable that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Dumb
- By NK on 2023-03-07
Written by: Randall Munroe
-
How to Survive History
- How to Outrun a Tyrannosaurus, Escape Pompeii, Get Off the Titanic, and Survive the Rest of History's Deadliest Catastrophes
- Written by: Cody Cassidy
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines to pandemics, from tornadoes to the Chicxulub asteroid, the odds of human survival are slim but not zero—at least, not if you know where to go and what to do. In each chapter of How to Survive History, Cody Cassidy explores how to survive one of history’s greatest threats: getting eaten by dinosaurs, being destroyed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, succumbing to the lava flows of Pompeii, being devoured by the Donner Party, and more.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought provoking
- By MR on 2024-02-21
Written by: Cody Cassidy
-
Humble Pi
- When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
- Written by: Matt Parker
- Narrated by: Matt Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 133
Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Missing something from the physical book
- By A on 2020-02-01
Written by: Matt Parker
-
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Written by: Douglas Adams
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,525
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,176
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,169
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow Stephen Fry
- By Anonymous User on 2018-05-27
Written by: Douglas Adams
-
And Then You're Dead
- What Really Happens If You Get Swallowed by a Whale, Are Shot from a Cannon, or Go Barreling over Niagara
- Written by: Cody Cassidy, Paul Doherty
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1
A gleefully gruesome look at the actual science behind the most outlandish, cartoonish, and impossible deaths you can imagine. What would happen if you took a swim outside a deep-sea submarine wearing only a swimsuit? How long could you last if you stood on the surface of the sun? How far could you actually get in digging a hole to China? Paul Doherty, senior staff scientist at San Francisco's famed Exploratorium Museum, and writer Cody Cassidy explore the real science behind these and other fantastical scenarios.
Written by: Cody Cassidy, and others
What listeners say about What If?
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mike Reiter
- 2018-11-03
Entertaining for your inner geek
Stuff you want to ask, and stuff you can't believe anybody would ask all explained, extrapolated and then the extrapolation explained, in exacting detail. I found it entertaining. Actual physics and chemistry applied to crazy premises. Wil Wheaton as always does an excellent job on the narration. Some people might find the science a bit dense, I found it entertaining. To let my biases be known, I typically like things narrated by Wil Wheaton and I am a fan of XKCD so I appreciate the author's humour.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2022-02-09
Interestingly Amusing
Never heard more ridiculous questions with non-ridiculous answers. Wil Wheaton does a great job narrating as well.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Daniel Hunton
- 2018-10-12
Really enjoyable listen
Fun science and really interesting stuff. My only gripe is that Wil Wheaton didn't really do it for me as the voice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- husson nicolas
- 2019-11-01
epic stories
the scales of consequences are just epic !!!
he explains consequences to such levels, it's just mind blowing
and even if it sound dumb at fort, you may learn nice stuff about phisics
great narrator !!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J
- 2023-10-14
Perfect Narration
I read What If? years ago and loved it. Listening to Wil Wheaton narrate it made it an even better book! His comedic timing and delivery are brilliant.
When I saw that this title was included in the Audible Plus Catalogue I knew I had to listen to it. It comes with a PDF of the comics, so if you love Randall Munroe’s humorous drawings, you won’t miss out on them.
Some of my favourite questions answered are:
1) What if you built a periodic table using the actual elements?
2) What if everybody had a soulmate?
3) What if someone was rising a foot a second?
4) What would happen if a hair dryer with continuous power was turned on and put in an airtight box? (It’s funnier than it seems)
5) What if we drain the oceans?
6) What if Richter 15?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Fitt
- 2022-02-14
A Lot of Fun
This was a lot more fun and oddly informative than I thought it would be. Will Wheaton was a great fit as narrator.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- kevin
- 2023-05-28
Mind blowing
Funny, informative. Made me think and laugh. This guy is great. I hope he puts out another book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ToxicGingerRose
- 2022-09-14
This is one I have listened to more than once
It's so much fun, and I love that it includes a PDF with all of the comics that are in the book version. And, as always, Wil Wheaton does a perfect job narrating. I buy audiobooks specifically with him listed as narrator because he always kills it!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Customer
- 2022-01-14
Very funny and educational
A fun look at ridiculous situations. It’s entertaining for all ages and education levels. Wheaton is a great reader and you’ll probably learn some things too! (Although questionable how much you can apply)
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cynical Manatee
- 2019-09-30
brilliant writing with the perfect narrator.
for anyone with a science itch or those curious about what would actually happen if your math/physics problems came to life.
this book was fantastically written and if you know will wheaton from his other works, you will quickly see how this genre of books are a perfect fit for him to read to you.
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