History Blog / Whatif

''[[http://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?]]'' is a blog by Creator/RandallMunroe, the creator of the StickFigureComic ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', started 10 July 2012. Updated [[ScheduleSlip erratically]][[labelnote:*]]Originally it was Tuesdays, but it gradually shifted to "when I feel like it" starting about 2016.[[/labelnote]], he answers off-the-wall reader questions using math, science, and ''xkcd''-style cartoons. Randall has a Website/{{Twitter}} feed, [[https://twitter.com/whatifnumbers @whatifnumbers]], of numbers he comes up with while writing the blog. He's also published a book, ''[[http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]'', containing several of the more popular answers and some new ones. The book received a follow up, ''[[Literature/WhatIf2 What If? 2]]: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions'', in 2022.

''[[http://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?]]'' is a blog by Creator/RandallMunroe, the creator of the StickFigureComic ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', started 10 July 2012. Updated [[ScheduleSlip erratically]][[labelnote:*]]Originally it was Tuesdays, but it gradually shifted to "when I feel like it" starting about 2016.[[/labelnote]], he answers off-the-wall reader questions using math, science, and ''xkcd''-style cartoons. Randall has a Website/{{Twitter}} feed, [[https://twitter.com/whatifnumbers @whatifnumbers]], of numbers he comes up with while writing the blog. He's also published a book, ''[[http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]'', containing several of the more popular answers and some new ones. The book received a follow up, ''[[WhatIf2 What If? 2]]: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions'', in 2022.

''[[http://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?]]'' is a blog by Creator/RandallMunroe, the creator of the StickFigureComic ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', started 10 July 2012. Updated [[ScheduleSlip erratically]][[labelnote:*]]Originally it was Tuesdays, but it gradually shifted to "when I feel like it" starting about 2016.[[/labelnote]], he answers off-the-wall reader questions using math, science, and ''xkcd''-style cartoons. Randall has a Website/{{Twitter}} feed, [[https://twitter.com/whatifnumbers @whatifnumbers]], of numbers he comes up with while writing the blog. He's also published a book, ''[[http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]'', containing several of the more popular answers and some new ones. The book received a follow up, ''What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions'', in 2022.

''[[http://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?]]'' is a blog by Creator/RandallMunroe, the creator of the StickFigureComic ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', started 10 July 2012. Updated [[ScheduleSlip erratically]][[labelnote:*]]Originally it was Tuesdays, but it gradually shifted to "when I feel like it" starting about 2016.[[/labelnote]], he answers off-the-wall reader questions using math, science, and ''xkcd''-style cartoons. Randall has a Website/{{Twitter}} feed, [[https://twitter.com/whatifnumbers @whatifnumbers]], of numbers he comes up with while writing the blog. He's also published a book, ''[[http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]'', containing several of the more popular answers and some new ones. The book received a follow up, What If 2, in 2022.

-->'''Friend's response''': "In ''our'' reactor? You’d die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds."

--->"Why did you '''do''' that?"

* RegionalRedecoration: [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/53/ Drain the Oceans]] shows maps of Earth in various phases of being drained from water by a portal at the bottom of Challenger Deep. The [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/54/ "sequel"]] follows that up with maps of Mars getting filled with water dumped from Earth.

->''"I’ve always thought that one of the the great things about physics is that you can add more digits to ''any number'' and see what happens and nobody can stop you."''
--> -- '''Randall Munroe''' in [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/20/ "Diamond"]]

* [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/147/ "Niagara Straw"]] is more concerned with the committees one would anger by funneling Niagara Falls through a straw than the fact that you'd destroy the planet if you did.

* RealityEnsues: In "All the Money", he notes that if you suddenly had the entire world's money supply, you couldn't actually spend it, because everyone would be pissed off at you for stealing all their money.

''[[http://what-if.xkcd.com/ What If?]]'' is a blog by Creator/RandallMunroe, the creator of the StickFigureComic ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', started 10 July 2012. Updated [[ScheduleSlip erratically]][[labelnote:*]]Originally it was Tuesdays, but it gradually shifted to "when I feel like it" starting about 2016.[[/labelnote]], he answers off-the-wall reader questions using math, science, and ''xkcd''-style cartoons. Randall has a Website/{{Twitter}} feed, [[https://twitter.com/whatifnumbers @whatifnumbers]], of numbers he comes up with while writing the blog. He's also published a book, ''[[http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]'', containing several of the more popular answers and some new ones.

** In [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/57/ "Dropping a Mountain"]], at the entry's [[SerialEscalation most extreme point]], Mt. [=McKinley=] hits [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/54/ New Netherlands]].

** "[[http://what-if.xkcd.com/57/ Dropping a Mountain]]" shows why this doesn't work in real life. When Mount [=McKinley=] is lifted and dropped from increasing heights, it is taken to the edge of Earth's gravitational well, the highest point an object could fall from, and hits Alaska at 10 km/s. The Black Hat Guy asks to drop it from even higher, which fails because Earth no longer has enough gravitational force to overcome that of other bodies in the solar system. Randall even hangs a lampshade on it.

** The first image in "[[https://what-if.xkcd.com/162/ Comet Ice]] has Black Hat Guy offering to plug an overflowing Diet Coke bottle with Mentos. The AltText says "Some of the [[https://xkcd.com/1053/ lucky 10,000 are less lucky than others".

** Randall frequently appends obvious statements with a superscripted "[citation needed]" in a dig at Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}'s somewhat spurious notability standards.

** [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ "Orbital Speed"]] compared the speed of the International Space Station to a bullet on a football field; the ISS could cross the field in the time it takes for the bullet to travel 10 yards. [[note]]Cue footnote: "This type of play is legal in Australian rules football."[[/note]] [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/137 "New Horizons"]] makes almost the ''exact'' same comparison for the titular spacecraft, and an additional comparison for a speeding car; New Horizons reaches the end zone, the bullet wouldn't even make the 10-yard line, and the automotive would have crossed about an inch. [[note]]Cue alt-text: "While this play isn't legal in American football, it's permitted in rugby."[[/note]]

--->A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered "hit by pitch", and would be eligible to advance to first base.\\
\\

--->A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered "hit by pitch", and would be eligible to advance to first base.
\\

** In [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/ "Relativistic Baseball"]], after discussing how throwing a lightspeed baseball would cause a thermonuclear explosion killing everyone for miles around, Munroe quotes the rules of the game

--->After extensive research, I can conclusively state that this would be a violation of your rental car agreement.

[[ApocalypseHow Also, you would disrupt ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, potentially seriously altering the climate in the northern hemisphere.]] That's very bad, although not necessarily a violation of your rental car agreement.

--->After extensive research, I can conclusively state that this would be a violation of your rental car agreement.\\