What If
Found through a Reddit comment; since I enjoy these fun science books, I wanted to dig in. It’s by the creator of xkcd. Big book. Funny, with great drawings; it answers absurd questions with humor and solid scientific rigor. I had a great time with it. I’ll reread it for sure; it’s full of gems I didn’t jot down.
Notes
- Usually when we talk about things at the speed of light, that creates so much energy it would destroy Earth (see the baseball thrown at the speed of light question, just to set the tone right from the start).
- Most questions, like how to build a laser that lights up the Moon (it requires 5 petawatts of power, more than total global consumption), demand so many resources or such stretching of physics that it’s simply absurd to even consider.
- Great one: “what if we all jumped at the same time in the same place”. Randall makes it even more entertaining given the answer is boring (nothing; Earth would not notice). But moving the entire world population to that spot would wreck the global transportation system. At least now we know.
- Fun fact about lightning (he explains well why they are deadly). Imagine a 1 km sphere: a bolt tries to attach to the closest point within that sphere. Usually trees. Of 28 lightning deaths in the US in 2012, 13 were under trees.
- Also great: the full/empty glass. If we put vacuum in the glass, first it flies (??), then it explodes (????).
- Another excellent explanation of genetics if we cloned ourselves (genetic diseases galore), including the history of royal bloodlines.
- Spectacular too: the one where the Sun disappears. He lays out all the pros (we would not get sunburned, we would see the stars), before ending with “we will all die”. Small problem…
- I don’t remember which it was, but this quote is great:
Worden, the Apollo 15 command module pilot, even enjoyed the experience. There’s a thing about being alone and there’s a thing about being lonely, and they’re two different things. I was alone but I was not lonely. My background was as a fighter pilot in the air force, then as a test pilot (and that was mostly in fighter airplanes) so I was very used to being by myself. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t have to talk to Dave and Jim any more… On the backside of the Moon, I didn’t even have to talk to Houston and that was the best part of the flight. Introverts understand; the loneliest human in history was just happy to have a few minutes of peace and quiet.
- Also great: the question about the super-dense bullet resting on a platform. There’s a recipe with vodka and salt to put on your fingers so you can touch it without being crushed by gravity (same if you submerge it). How does he come up with these? Brilliant.