{"id":400,"date":"2018-09-28T15:01:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T13:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/readerwitch.com\/?p=400"},"modified":"2018-09-28T15:01:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T13:01:06","slug":"what-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/2018\/09\/28\/what-if\/","title":{"rendered":"What if? by Randall Munroe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Genre: popular science. \u2b50\ufe0fStars from Goodreads: 4.17.\u2b50\ufe0fStars from me: 5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">What if this lake dries out completely? Piva lake is an artificial lake, but even this lake lost a lot of water last summer. It was that hot.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_media-6\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-media-6\" style=\"width: 3807px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-401\" src=\"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/img_20180909_134149_hdr-02.jpeg\" alt=\"IMG_20180909_134149_HDR-02.jpeg\" width=\"3807\" height=\"2141\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-media-6\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Those lines on the shore show how much the water level dropped.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Q9YUjy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>What if?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0visited Piva lake and even though the book doesn&#8217;t answer any questions about the lake, it answers many other unusual questions. Here\u2019s the book\u2019s photo session and review.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-402\" src=\"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/img_20180909_133923_hdr-01.jpeg\" alt=\"IMG_20180909_133923_HDR-01.jpeg\" width=\"2056\" height=\"3654\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>What if?<\/em> is a masterpiece by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Randall_Munroe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Randall Munroe<\/a>. As the book states on its cover, it contains <em>\u201cserious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I am quite far away from science. Apart from a wish to understand things, I possess no scientific inclinations. Yet I laughed my head off while reading this book. No other book ever made me laugh so much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Randall Munroe is a unique author because he\u2019s both a famous cartoonist and a scientist. The book is a collection of absurd questions the author had been receiving on his blog and his answers to them. Here are some examples of the questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><em>\u201cIf everyone on the planet stayed away from each other for a couple of weeks, wouldn\u2019t the common cold be wiped out?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>&#8220;What would happen if absolutely everyone jumped at the same time?&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><em>\u201cIf an asteroid was very small but supermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><em>\u201cIf you suddenly began rising steadily at 1 foot per second, how exactly would you die? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><em>\u201cWhat would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\">The answers are accompanied by Munroe\u2019s illustrations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-403\" src=\"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/img_20180928_131945_hdr2.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_20180928_131945_HDR~2.jpg\" width=\"3718\" height=\"2250\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Some questions are so weird they received no answer but a cartoon.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-405\" src=\"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/img_20180928_131828_hdr21.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_20180928_131828_HDR~2.jpg\" width=\"2091\" height=\"3787\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Truth be told there are some rare moments when Randall goes deeper into formulas and explanations and I did skip those parts. I have formula intolerance. I don\u2019t like numbers. Even phone numbers make me drowsy. Still I was able to enjoy this book very much.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/What_If%3F:_Serious_Scientific_Answers_to_Absurd_Hypothetical_Questions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia article<\/a> about the book if you want to learn more.\u00a0I think it&#8217;s better to order <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Q9YUjy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a paper copy of the book<\/a>, not a digital one, because of all the illustrations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I highly recommend this book. It\u2019s an awesome read and a great present for anybody with a curious mind.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-407\" src=\"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/img_20180909_133935_hdr-01.jpeg\" alt=\"IMG_20180909_133935_HDR-01.jpeg\" width=\"3690\" height=\"2076\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The book is a masterpiece that contains \u201cserious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions\u201d. It&#8217;s hilarious and interesting. Read on for more photos and the review. <a href=\"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/2018\/09\/28\/what-if\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What if? by Randall Munroe<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[140,267,465,483,493,666,667],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readerwitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}