Not as good as the first What If? book, but still entertaining. I would have preferred more outer space and explosions. ( )

Entertaining as always, and even if I'm not absorbing all the science discussed, it's thought-provoking in a fun way. ( )

Following up [b:What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions|21413662|What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions|Randall Munroe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451351509l/21413662._SX50_.jpg|40714465] with very silly questions and serious answers like what if the solar system was filled with soup out to Jupiter (and examples of how math is useful for calculating these out!)

I am long behind on xkcd strips, but these felt like getting back into them, with a bit more interactivity because of questions (and Randall's willingness to answer them, see the weird & worrying sections). ( )

Readers familiar with xkcd, Randall Munroe, What If, How-To or anyone with a passing interest in physics will be well-served by this book. The TL;DR version of this book would be questions of the sort of ‘what if..’ put forward on a site, where a former NASA robotics engineer with a penchant for dry humor answers these questions with more than a tinge of sarcasm.
Questions range from the genuinely curious (can we burn a piece of paper using moonlight?), to the slightly macabre (how much sunscreen would you need for landing on the surface of the Sun?). In case you’re wondering, the answers are no, and not that much.
On a tangential note, many researchers and engineers I talk to on a daily basis are disenchanted by the field, either by the difference between their expectations and reality, or because they’re disillusioned by the assumption that science and maths are tough, and it’s not possible to understand them in detail, unless you put in disproportionate amounts of effort.
Randall is one of the only people I’ve encountered (who’s not a researcher) that still displays an infectious, childlike wonder for STEM, and distills advanced concepts to their essence. This book is a great read for that alone, along with the fact that it’s also a good source for collecting bucketloads of trivia. ( )

I enjoyed some of the topics but some of the questions/answers were just way-too-far-out-there. Some I read in-depth out of interest, while others I just skimmed over. The illustrations were really cute though. 3.5 stars ( )