History Literature / WhatIf2

** '''Chapter 37: Laser Umbrella''' explores using laser beams as an umbrella. Since it would require an extremely powerful laser, as well as surgically precise aiming, it's a cool idea[[note]]'''Megan:''' It isn't.[[/note]] that won't end up working very well.

'''Cueball:''' ''(sitting at the controls of his giant roof-mounted laser)'' Dunno.[[labelnote:AltText]]List of possible causes. Smoking in bed. Dryer lint. Induced currents. Sunspots. Neap tides. COX-2 inhibition. [=eBay=]. A reverse fire extinguisher. One of the ghosts from Pac-Man got loose and got into your house and knocked over a candle. Could be anything.[[/labelnote]]

---> '''Megan:''' No, it doesn't.[[labelnote:AltText]]Why would that sound reasonable. Why would you say that.[[/labelnote]]

---> '''Megan:''' It isn't.[[labelnote:AltText]]What's wrong with you?[[/labelnote]]

---> '''Megan:''' Fine.[[labelnote:AltText]]But we shouldn't be.[[/labelnote]]

'''Cueball:''' ''(sitting at the controls of his giant roof-mounted laser)'' Dunno.

---> '''Megan:''' No, it doesn't. ('''AltText:''' Why would that sound reasonable. Why would you say that.)

---> '''Megan:''' It isn't. ('''AltText:''' What's wrong with you?)

---> '''Megan:''' Fine. ('''AltText:''' But we shouldn't be.)

---> '''Megan:''' No, it doesn't.

---> '''Megan:''' It isn't.

---> '''Megan:''' Fine.

** '''Chapter 37: Laser Umbrella''' explores using laser beams as an umbrella. Since it would require an extremely powerful laser, as well as surgically precise aiming, it's a cool idea that won't end up working very well.

** "If I were to jump into a container of liquid nitrogen (or dispose of a body in that way), how deep would it have to be for me/them to shatter into frozen pieces at the bottom?"

** '''Chapter 2: Helicopter Ride''' explores what happens to a helicopter if you decide to latch onto the blades. Since, normally, you'd fall off about halfway through the first turn from centrifugal force alone, Randall introduces the ACME Hand Anchors, labeled as "Incredibly dangerous" and "The FAA ''hates'' it!", to keep Cueball attached.

* ImplausibleDeniability: [[https://what-if.xkcd.com/119/ Laser Umbrella]] ends with Cueball setting a neighbor's house on fire.

* WaxingLyrical: In "[[https://what-if.xkcd.com/83/ Star Sand]]", one image compares the Sun to stars that are "heavier, bluer, bigger, younger, [[Music/DaftPunk harder, better, faster, stronger]]".

'''Scientist 2:''' OK. You'll need to come along since we need two people to turn the keys to access it.

** '''[[ApocalypseHow/ClassX2 Chapter 20: Elemental Worlds]]''' explores what happens if Mercury, Ceres, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are made of Mercury, Cerium, Uranium, Neptunium, and Plutonium, respectively. While Mercury Mercury and Cerium Ceres are, generally, perfectly fine for our Solar System, the other three have more catastrophic implications, especially for Neptunium Neptune, which would glow so hot that the planet ''vaporizes itself''. Things get worse using unstable isotopes - if our Uranium Uranus were made of [[superscript:235]]U instead of [[superscript:238]]U, the resulting radiation would cause a nuclear reaction so strong that Earth would be stripped to nothing but a blob of magma in only 3 hours.

As a side note, all of the text found in images is stylized in all caps, SORT OF LIKE THIS. For the sake of clarity, they've been changed to proper capitalization, where applicable.

** '''Chapter 35: No-Rules NASCAR''' imagines a scenario where NASCAR strips all of its rules, leading to a race where the goal is to simply get a human around the track 200 times as fast as possible. The answer is around an hour, at a G-limit of 10. If the human doesn't need to survive, it can be done even faster by making a particle accelerator, finishing all 200 laps in only 2 seconds.

** A handful of subtle callbacks to '''How To''', another one of Randall's books:

As a side note, all of the text found in images is stylized in all caps, SORT OF LIKE THIS. For the sake of clarity, they've been changed to proper capitalization, where applicible.

--> A solidified lava lamp is just about the most boring thing in the world. But the scenario made me wonder: If making a lamp out of molten lava wouldn't be very exciting, then what about a volacno made of lamps? This is probably the most useless calculation I've ever done,* but... [[TitleDrop what if]] Mount Saint Helens erupted again today, but instead of tephra,† it spewed compact fluorescent bulbs?

** '''Chapter 6: Pidgeon Chair''' shows that it is possible to use pidgeons to lift yourself to the top of a skyscraper, but it's extremely risky and your life will be in the hands of anyone with a bag of seeds.

** '''Chapter 35: No-Rules NASCAR''' imagines a scenario where NASCAR strips all of its rules, leading to a race where the goal is to simply get a human around the track 200 times as fast as possible. The answer is around an hour, at a G-limit of 10. If the human doesn't need to survive, it can be done even faster by making a particle accelerator, finishing 30 laps in a mere 2.7 milliseconds.

** "Billy the Clown is running out of cash, so in order to raise money, he devises his newest trick: He will inflate, by mouth, a standard-size party balloon until the material (some form on indestructible rubber) is just one atom thick. How large would the inflated party balloon be?"

** '''Chapter 60: Dog Overload''' states that under the conditions underlined in the ApocalypseHow section of this page, the dog sphere will expand faster than light itself in only 197 years.

** '''Short Answers #2''' has a question asking how fast you have to go to break every bone in your body on a trampoline, as well as how fast you have to go to go through the mesh. The answer is indeterminate, since there are very tiny bones, mainly in your hands and feet. As for going through the mesh, it's not possible.
** '''Chapter 19: Slow Dinosaur Extinction''' explores the Chicxulub meteor impact, the impact believed to have killed off the dinosaurs, if the meteor hit the earth at only 3 mph (4.83 km/h). The result isn't mass extinction, but since many meteors are essentially giant balls of gravel, the impact leads to the meteor spreading outwards like a puddle via soil liquefaction, spreading faster than the speed of sound.

--->[[FootnoteFever * Okay, there's no ''way'' that's true.]]

* BluntNo: At the end of '''Chapter 42: Blood Alcohol''', Megan can be seen with a gallon of blood, trying to suggest that they do it with blood.