What If? By Randall Munroe

If you are in the mood for quirky humor answering silly questions by appearing to apply proper science to them- then get this book.

The genesis of the book is the author's blog xkcd – which I had never heard of before.  Visitors to the blog generated the questions that the author attempts to answer complete with cute little stick figure illustrations.

The subtitle of the book is Serious Scientific Answers To Absurd Hypothetical Questions. The second part is certainly true – I'm not a scientist so I'm not sure how sound the science is. The author is a physicist who used to work for NASA so it may all be true.

The books begins with a wonderful disclaimer:

Do not try any of this at home.  The author of this book is an internet cartoonist, not a health or safety expert.  He likes it when things catch fire or explode, which means he does not have your best interests in mind.  The pulisher and the author disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects resulting, diretly or indirectly, from information contained in this book.

Some examples of the questions:

If everyone on the planet stayed away from each other for a couple of weeks, wouldn't the common cold be wiped out?

If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change colour?

What is everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world?

As part of answering that one, he quotes a song:

Your love is one in a million:

You couldn't buy it at any price.

But of the 9,999 hundred thousand other loves,

Statistically, some of them would be equally nice.