
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
author: | Randall Munroe (2014) |
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date read: | 15 July 2017 |
rating: | ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ |
Funny and interesting. The style is very similar to the “What If” essays on the XKCD website – a mixture of scientific fact, acerbic wit and cartoonish humour. (Indeed, several of the chapters seem to be lifted directly from the original articles.)
I skipped a couple of chapters that I’d read before, but otherwise there was enough to keep me interested throughout. I particularly enjoyed the question about building a physical table of elements, and swimming in a radioactive fuel pool.
Firmly in the ‘pop science’ category – not one to read for the hard science, but for the entertainment value – a good way to spend two days of commuting.
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