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What If? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Munroe

lucas.cottrell
(101)
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US $15.99
ApproximatelyRM 67.71
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Condition:
Brand New
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US $5.22 (approx RM 22.10) USPS Media MailTM.
Located in: Fairfax, Virginia, United States
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Estimated between Thu, 24 Jul and Wed, 30 Jul
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eBay item number:205602944946

Item specifics

Condition
Brand New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab
Signed
No
Ex Libris
No
Narrative Type
Nonfiction
Original Language
English
Inscribed
No
Vintage
No
Personalize
No
Era
2010s
Personalized
No
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
ISBN
9780544272996

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
HarperCollins
ISBN-10
0544272994
ISBN-13
9780544272996
eBay Product ID (ePID)
201606792

Product Key Features

Book Title
What If? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Number of Pages
352 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2014
Topic
Form / Trivia, Satire, General, Physics / General
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Fiction, Science, Humor
Author
Randall Munroe
Format
Hardcover

Dimensions

Item Height
1.3 in
Item Weight
32.8 Oz
Item Length
9 in
Item Width
7 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2014-016311
Dewey Edition
23
Reviews
"What If? maintains a delightfully free-wheeling tone throughout, especially  when complicated calculations lead to whimsical results...Despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, it never feels like a textbook--and you don''t have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it. A" --Entertainment Weekly   "Catchy and approachable...There''s plenty of scientific rigor behind his elaborate explanations but he punctuates them with sly humor and winningly primitive cartoon diagrams...A cut above so many popular science and technology books." --NPR.org "Consistently fascinating and entertaining...Munroe leavens the hard science with whimsical touches...An illuminating handbook of methods of reasoning." --Wall Street Journal   "It''s fun to watch as Munroe tackles each question and examines every possible complication with nerdy and methodical aplomb, his distinctive scribblings providing clever running commentary of peanut-gallery jokes as his train of thought (sometimes) happily derails. The delightfully demented ''What If?'' is the most fun you can have with math and science, short of becoming your own evil genius...We feel the tug of Munroe''s playful yet existentially-tinged worldview, and all that geek logic and number-crunching becomes unexpectedly poignant." --Boston Globe "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   "[What If?] has solved my annual birthday-present and holiday-gift dilemmas for a large group of people...What makes Munroe''s work so fantastic is a combination of two elements: his commitment to trying to answer even the weirdest question with solid science, and his undeniable sense of humor." --Huffington Post   "Munroe takes inane, useless and often quite pointless questions asked by real humans (mostly sent to him through his website), and turns them into beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences..The answers are all illustrated with XKCD''s trademark stick figures...and these are eminently approachable." --Newsweek   "What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions includes old favorites, new inquiries and the mix of expert research and accessible wit that has made Munroe a favorite among both geeks and laymen."--TIME   "Loaded with the same dry wit and blank-faced stick figures that populate xkcd, What If? is that rare book that will have you laughing as you learn just how a mass extinction might unfold." --Discover "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   "Munroe''s brilliant What-If? column--which features scientifically rigorous, utterly absurd answers to ridiculous hypotheticals--has been on the bestseller lists since it was announced in March. Today, it hits shelves and: It. Is. A. Triumph." --BoingBoing   "What If? is a fast, engrossing read...The charm of What If? lies in the ease Munroe has jumping past intensely interesting conclusions and onto his next thought, tangent, or consequence. It''s as if Munroe is a unseen stage technician pulling back the curtain -- the answers were always there, we just needed someone who knew how to show us. Even he seems surprised at what he finds." - Nerdist  "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, "What If? maintains a delightfully free-wheeling tone throughout, especially when complicated calculations lead to whimsical results...Despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, it never feels like a textbook--and you don''t have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it. A" --Entertainment Weekly "Catchy and approachable...There''s plenty of scientific rigor behind his elaborate explanations but he punctuates them with sly humor and winningly primitive cartoon diagrams...A cut above so many popular science and technology books." --NPR.org "Consistently fascinating and entertaining...Munroe leavens the hard science with whimsical touches...An illuminating handbook of methods of reasoning." --Wall Street Journal "It''s fun to watch as Munroe tackles each question and examines every possible complication with nerdy and methodical aplomb, his distinctive scribblings providing clever running commentary of peanut-gallery jokes as his train of thought (sometimes) happily derails. The delightfully demented ''What If?'' is the most fun you can have with math and science, short of becoming your own evil genius...We feel the tug of Munroe''s playful yet existentially-tinged worldview, and all that geek logic and number-crunching becomes unexpectedly poignant." --Boston Globe "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 "[What If?] has solved my annual birthday-present and holiday-gift dilemmas for a large group of people...What makes Munroe''s work so fantastic is a combination of two elements: his commitment to trying to answer even the weirdest question with solid science, and his undeniable sense of humor." --Huffington Post "Munroe takes inane, useless and often quite pointless questions asked by real humans (mostly sent to him through his website), and turns them into beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences..The answers are all illustrated with XKCD''s trademark stick figures...and these are eminently approachable." --Newsweek "What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions includes old favorites, new inquiries and the mix of expert research and accessible wit that has made Munroe a favorite among both geeks and laymen."--TIME "Loaded with the same dry wit and blank-faced stick figures that populate xkcd, What If? is that rare book that will have you laughing as you learn just how a mass extinction might unfold." --Discover "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 "Munroe''s brilliant What-If? column--which features scientifically rigorous, utterly absurd answers to ridiculous hypotheticals--has been on the bestseller lists since it was announced in March. Today, it hits shelves and: It. Is. A. Triumph." --BoingBoing "What If? is a fast, engrossing read...The charm of What If? lies in the ease Munroe has jumping past intensely interesting conclusions and onto his next thought, tangent, or consequence. It''s as if Munroe is a unseen stage technician pulling back the curtain -- the answers were always there, we just needed someone who knew how to show us. Even he seems surprised at what he finds." - Nerdist "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, "What If? maintains a delightfully free-wheeling tone throughout, especially when complicated calculations lead to whimsical results...Despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, it never feels like a textbook--and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it. A" --Entertainment Weekly "Catchy and approachable...There's plenty of scientific rigor behind his elaborate explanations but he punctuates them with sly humor and winningly primitive cartoon diagrams...A cut above so many popular science and technology books." --NPR.org "Consistently fascinating and entertaining...Munroe leavens the hard science with whimsical touches...An illuminating handbook of methods of reasoning." --Wall Street Journal "It's fun to watch as Munroe tackles each question and examines every possible complication with nerdy and methodical aplomb, his distinctive scribblings providing clever running commentary of peanut-gallery jokes as his train of thought (sometimes) happily derails. The delightfully demented 'What If?' is the most fun you can have with math and science, short of becoming your own evil genius...We feel the tug of Munroe's playful yet existentially-tinged worldview, and all that geek logic and number-crunching becomes unexpectedly poignant." --Boston Globe "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 "[What If?] has solved my annual birthday-present and holiday-gift dilemmas for a large group of people...What makes Munroe's work so fantastic is a combination of two elements: his commitment to trying to answer even the weirdest question with solid science, and his undeniable sense of humor." --Huffington Post "Munroe takes inane, useless and often quite pointless questions asked by real humans (mostly sent to him through his website), and turns them into beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences..The answers are all illustrated with XKCD's trademark stick figures...and these are eminently approachable." --Newsweek "What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions includes old favorites, new inquiries and the mix of expert research and accessible wit that has made Munroe a favorite among both geeks and laymen."--TIME "Loaded with the same dry wit and blank-faced stick figures that populate xkcd, What If? is that rare book that will have you laughing as you learn just how a mass extinction might unfold." --Discover "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 "Munroe's brilliant What-If? column--which features scientifically rigorous, utterly absurd answers to ridiculous hypotheticals--has been on the bestseller lists since it was announced in March. Today, it hits shelves and: It. Is. A. Triumph." --BoingBoing "What If? is a fast, engrossing read...The charm of What If? lies in the ease Munroe has jumping past intensely interesting conclusions and onto his next thought, tangent, or consequence. It's as if Munroe is a unseen stage technician pulling back the curtain -- the answers were always there, we just needed someone who knew how to show us. Even he seems surprised at what he finds." - Nerdist, "What If? maintains a delightfully free-wheeling tone throughout, especially  when complicated calculations lead to whimsical results...Despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, it never feels like a textbook--and you don''t have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it. A" --Entertainment Weekly   "Catchy and approachable...There's plenty of scientific rigor behind his elaborate explanations but he punctuates them with sly humor and winningly primitive cartoon diagrams...A cut above so many popular science and technology books." --NPR.org "Consistently fascinating and entertaining...Munroe leavens the hard science with whimsical touches...An illuminating handbook of methods of reasoning." --Wall Street Journal   "It''s fun to watch as Munroe tackles each question and examines every possible complication with nerdy and methodical aplomb, his distinctive scribblings providing clever running commentary of peanut-gallery jokes as his train of thought (sometimes) happily derails. The delightfully demented ''What If?'' is the most fun you can have with math and science, short of becoming your own evil genius...We feel the tug of Munroe''s playful yet existentially-tinged worldview, and all that geek logic and number-crunching becomes unexpectedly poignant." --Boston Globe "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   "[What If?] has solved my annual birthday-present and holiday-gift dilemmas for a large group of people...What makes Munroe's work so fantastic is a combination of two elements: his commitment to trying to answer even the weirdest question with solid science, and his undeniable sense of humor." --Huffington Post   "Munroe takes inane, useless and often quite pointless questions asked by real humans (mostly sent to him through his website), and turns them into beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences..The answers are all illustrated with XKCD''s trademark stick figures...and these are eminently approachable." --Newsweek   "What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions includes old favorites, new inquiries and the mix of expert research and accessible wit that has made Munroe a favorite among both geeks and laymen."--TIME   "Loaded with the same dry wit and blank-faced stick figures that populate xkcd, What If? is that rare book that will have you laughing as you learn just how a mass extinction might unfold." --Discover "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   "Munroe's brilliant What-If? column--which features scientifically rigorous, utterly absurd answers to ridiculous hypotheticals--has been on the bestseller lists since it was announced in March. Today, it hits shelves and: It. Is. A. Triumph." --BoingBoing   "What If? is a fast, engrossing read...The charm of What If? lies in the ease Munroe has jumping past intensely interesting conclusions and onto his next thought, tangent, or consequence. It''s as if Munroe is a unseen stage technician pulling back the curtain -- the answers were always there, we just needed someone who knew how to show us. Even he seems surprised at what he finds." - Nerdist  "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, "What If? maintains a delightfully free-wheeling tone throughout, especially  when complicated calculations lead to whimsical results...Despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, it never feels like a textbook--and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it. A" --Entertainment Weekly   "Catchy and approachable...There's plenty of scientific rigor behind his elaborate explanations but he punctuates them with sly humor and winningly primitive cartoon diagrams...A cut above so many popular science and technology books." --NPR.org "Consistently fascinating and entertaining...Munroe leavens the hard science with whimsical touches...An illuminating handbook of methods of reasoning." --Wall Street Journal   "It's fun to watch as Munroe tackles each question and examines every possible complication with nerdy and methodical aplomb, his distinctive scribblings providing clever running commentary of peanut-gallery jokes as his train of thought (sometimes) happily derails. The delightfully demented 'What If?' is the most fun you can have with math and science, short of becoming your own evil genius...We feel the tug of Munroe's playful yet existentially-tinged worldview, and all that geek logic and number-crunching becomes unexpectedly poignant." --Boston Globe "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   "[What If?] has solved my annual birthday-present and holiday-gift dilemmas for a large group of people...What makes Munroe's work so fantastic is a combination of two elements: his commitment to trying to answer even the weirdest question with solid science, and his undeniable sense of humor." --Huffington Post   "Munroe takes inane, useless and often quite pointless questions asked by real humans (mostly sent to him through his website), and turns them into beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences..The answers are all illustrated with XKCD's trademark stick figures...and these are eminently approachable." --Newsweek   "What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions includes old favorites, new inquiries and the mix of expert research and accessible wit that has made Munroe a favorite among both geeks and laymen."--TIME   "Loaded with the same dry wit and blank-faced stick figures that populate xkcd, What If? is that rare book that will have you laughing as you learn just how a mass extinction might unfold." --Discover   "Munroe's brilliant What-If? column--which features scientifically rigorous, utterly absurd answers to ridiculous hypotheticals--has been on the bestseller lists since it was announced in March. Today, it hits shelves and: It. Is. A. Triumph." --BoingBoing   "What If? is a fast, engrossing read...The charm of What If? lies in the ease Munroe has jumping past intensely interesting conclusions and onto his next thought, tangent, or consequence. It's as if Munroe is a unseen stage technician pulling back the curtain -- the answers were always there, we just needed someone who knew how to show us. Even he seems surprised at what he finds." - Nerdist  "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
Dewey Decimal
500
Synopsis
From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have an enormous, dedicated following, as do his deeply researched answers to his fans' strangest questions. The queries he receives range from merely odd to downright diabolical: - What if I took a swim in a spent-nuclear-fuel pool? - Could you build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns? - What if a Richter 15 earthquake hit New York City? - Are fire tornadoes possible? His responses are masterpieces of clarity and wit, gleefully and accurately explaining everything from the relativistic effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the many horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? is an informative feast for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical., From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with updated and expanded versions of the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? will be required reading for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical., In the New York Times best-selling book from the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, Randall Munroe gives hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask.
LC Classification Number
Q173.M965 2014

Item description from the seller

About this seller

lucas.cottrell

100% positive feedback•100 items sold

Joined Dec 2005
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