Review: What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

Title: What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Series: What If? #2

Previous book in this series: What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Author: Randall Munroe

Genre: Adult, nonfiction, science

Publication date: September 2022

Published by: Mariner Books

Source: Borrowed hardcover from library

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Synopsis: The #1 New York Times–bestselling author of What If? and How To provides his best answers yet to the weirdest questions you never thought to ask.

The millions of people around the world who read and 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, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist.

Before you go on a cosmic road trip, feed the residents of New York City to a T. rex, or fill every church with bananas, be sure to consult this practical guide for impractical ideas. Unfazed by absurdity, Randall consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airplane-catapult design to clearly and concisely answer his readers’ questions. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances.

Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Randall’s signature stick-figure comics, What If? 2 is sure to be another instant classic adored by inquisitive readers of all ages.

My rating: ★★★★☆

More serious scientific answers to hypothetical questions! I really enjoyed the first book, so I was excited to read the sequel with even more ridiculous questions. And I really enjoyed this one too!

More answers I didn’t know I needed answered:

The speed at which someone would be launched by water were they to stand on top of Old Faithful. Lol. This was so dumb and hilarious to me! And it was particularly intriguing because I JUST visited Yellowstone National Park for the first time this past summer!

There was another question I found intriguing that mentioned the Chicxulub impact, which they say is the event that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs!! The funny thing is, I was in Cancun when I was reading this question... which is about 5 hours away from where this happened! It was crazy! I had no idea that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was this one and that it hit Mexico!

We unfortunately didn’t go see the crater, but we got pretty close to Merida (where it’s located). We went to Chichen Itza and saw the Mayan ruins, which I have seen before, but it was still really cool.

Another thing I learned is that if you crush sugar in the dark, light is emitted!

It’s called triboluminescence and I had no idea this was a thing!! I was reading this at work and I was so curious I had to look up a video on YouTube. Two 3rd graders were with me during recess and they watched it with me and were absolutely riveted! Even they thought it was interesting! Lol.

There were a couple other questions answering what would happen if certain planets were made of their element namesake (uranium, plutonium, neptunium), how you could build Rome in one day, if a person could eat a whole cloud...

If you could make a lava lamp out of real lava and what could contain it, how many toasters it would take to heat a house 😂, if you could get drunk from drinking a drunk person's blood???

I loved this one 😂 There were just a lot of fun, dumb questions that had very interesting answers. And I learned a lot! For example, I didn’t know that refrigerators work by pumping heat from their interior to the exterior! They don't cool their surroundings! The question was how many refrigerators it would take to cool the outdoors lol...

But yeah, I really enjoyed this! It was fun and informative, and I also really enjoyed the short answer chapters...

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as well as the Weird and Worrying questions. Which were especially hilarious because the author doesn't always answer them because they're, well, worrying 😆

And I of course loved all the comics and illustrations throughout the book—it just made it that much more fun! This book was just as fun as the last book, and I’m really looking forward to reading the author’s other science-y books!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊