What If - Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Paperback

As a long time fan of XKCD, I thought I knew exactly what I was in for when I bought this book as a gift for my younger brother. In fact, I am very impressed with what I recieved! The quality of the book immediately caught my attention after unpackaging it. There are plenty of little jokes added to the dust jacket, cover, and even the end paper inside the covers! Some images of these are included in the Amazon pictures here, but I didn't look at them to closely before buying the book. Everything is written in the classic humour style of Munroe's comic. The hardcover has a little bit of a gloss to it that I appreciated. In terms of the actual content of the book, I was expecting verbatim explanations of the free content from the What-If webpage, with a few added questions that I hadn't seen before to flesh things out. This is more or less what I got. However, as I skimmed through (prior to gifting it to my brother, I just HAD to check out the new stuff quickly) it seemed like it was more detailed than I remembered. I think that some of the text might have been updated or added to, even on previously available explanations. I could be wrong, but that doesn't change how awesome the book is! This book is great for anyone who appreciates a good laugh, or is curious about science and the world around them! Lots of other people have already mentioned this, but the writing style is INCREDIBLY accessible for fans of all ages and levels of understanding. My brother is only 12, but he loves the book and regularly gets excited talking with me about things he's read in it. I'm an Engineering student myself, and really appreciate the way technical accuracy and accessibility manage to be combined. It's not an easy thing to do!

The tagline says it all really - "Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions" - this book is very accessible, and will be enjoyed by anyone with a high-school level of science knowledge. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and am certain I will read it again in the future, with the same amount of child-like glee I read it with the first time through! A great gift for a geek or scientist you know - they'll get laughs and smiles out of it, and proudly place it on the coffee table afterwards.

You will probably find this book in many 'best books of 2014' type lists, and putting it in such lists is completely justified. This book is hilariously entertaining and scientifically correct (in an approximate sense). What makes the book work is Randall Munroe's smart sense of humor that makes lot of the science in the book utter fun. For somebody like me from a Physics background, there is always an apprehension when picking up a book which has 'serious scientific answers' in its title. But it was a joy to read through Munroe deconstructing absurdly hypothetical questions while making it a whole lot of fun. This book is enjoyable at different levels depending on the technical expertise of the reader, but I'm sure the book will appeal to anyone with its humor and science. Definitely one of the best books I read in 2014. Highly recommended.

Es un muy buen libro, es de muy buena calidad. Me llegó a tiempo y en perfectas condiciones.

الكتاب متوصخ من الداخل وكأنه مرمي بالمستودع