
What If? (Hardcover)
Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 9780544272996, 320pp.
Publication Date: September 2, 2014
Other Editions of This Title:
Digital Audiobook (9/1/2014)
MP3 CD (9/2/2014)
Paperback, Chinese (5/1/2015)
Compact Disc (9/2/2014)
Pre-Recorded Audio Player (9/1/2014)
Description
About the Author
Randall Munroe is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers What If? and Thing Explainer, the science question-and-answer blog What If, and the popular webcomic xkcd. A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the Internet full-time, supporting himself through the sale of xkcd t-shirts, prints, posters, and books. He likes candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach. Very long walks. Lots of people say they like long walks on the beach, but then they get out on the beach and after just an hour or two, they say they’re getting tired. Bring a tent. He lives in Massachusetts.
Praise For What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions…
"Consistently fascinating and entertaining...Munroe leavens the hard science with whimsical touches...An illuminating handbook of methods of reasoning." --Wall Street Journal
“Munroe has hit on a wonderful form of science and engineering communication that can do so much—extolling the value of analytical thinking, examining data, and doing back-of-the-envelope calculations—while entertaining readers at the same time… an incredibly fun book with quirky, hand-drawn pictures.” —American Scientist
"Wide-ranging and strangely poignant...This book is tons of fun...Munroe’s spiffy essays do tend to resemble the sort of lectures that cool professors give on the first day of class...It’s quality entertainment." --Washington Independent Review of Books
"Those who enjoyed the irreverent style of Allie Brosh’s best-selling memoir, Hyperbole and a Half, will enjoy Munroe’s serious and silly musings on everything from science to romance." --Library Journal