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What If? by Randall Munroe
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What If?

Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

$15.26

Retail price: $16.95

Discount: 9%

This title is not eligible for purchase with membership credits. Why?

Narrator Wil Wheaton

This audiobook uses AI narration.

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Length 6 hours 36 minutes
Language English
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From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd comes this hilarious and informative book of 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 of the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there were 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? is required listening for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.

Randall Munroe is the author of the popular webcomic xkcd and the science question-and-answer blog What If? Randall was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and grew up outside Richmond. After graduating with a degree in physics from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, he got a job building robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center. In 2006 he left NASA 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.

Wil Wheaton is a highly acclaimed producer, narrator, and actor who has appeared in dozens of films and TV series. Most recently, he played a fictionalized version of himself on CBS's The Big Bang Theory, one of the most highly rated and watched sitcoms of the last decade. An accomplished voice actor, Wil has lent his talents to many animated series, including Family Guy, Teen Titans, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. His audiobook narration of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list and was one of Goodreads's 10 of the Best Narrator and Audiobook Pairings of All Time. He has also lent his voice to titles by John Scalzi, Randall Monroe, Andy Weir, and Joe Hill. When he isn't acting, narrating, or podcasting, Wil is writing. A lot. He lives in Los Angeles with his badass, irrepressible wife, Anne; one rescue dog (RIP Seamus); one cat; and two vintage arcade cabinets. If you're not a robot, you can reach him at wil@wilwheaton.net.

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Reviews

What If? is one of my Internet must-reads, and I look forward to each new installment, and always read it with delight.”

“Required reading across the world.”

“Munroe applies reason and research to hypothetical conundrums ranging from the philosophical to the scientific (often absurd but never pseudo) that probably seemed awesome in your elementary school days—but were never sufficiently answered. It’s the rare combination of edifying and fun.”

“Who better than Wil Wheaton, formerly of Star Trek, to narrate this romp through the world of Randall Munroe—physicist, roboticist, and editor of the website xkcd?…Wheaton’s ambitious performance meshes perfectly with the perspectives and humor of the author. Missing from the audio are the signature stick-figure cartoons from the printed book and website, but Wheaton’s outstanding inflections, pacing, cadence, and timing more than compensate for the loss. So if you want to be thoroughly entertained while discovering what would happen if the world suddenly stopped spinning or a drain appeared in the bottom of the ocean, this audiobook deserves space on your listening device.”

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