What if? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical, as the title implies, follows the author, former NASA programmer and roboticist Randall Munroe, as he attempts to give scientific and logical answers to the strange, bizarre, and outlandish questions submitted by his fans. The book follows the same premise as his Webcomic and YouTube channel, xkcd, as well as the previous book in the series, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. Each question in the book occupies the same space as a chapter would in a regular novel, and is accompanied by humorous stick figure drawings by the author, each relating to the prompt of the question. Munroe meticulously analyses the questions submitted to him, and presents fully logical answers backed up with scientific data and knowledge. Often, Munroe presents real world scientific knowledge and insights relating to the topic, giving educational value to the book as well.Some examples of the questions in What if? 2 include: “Can all the world’s bananas fit inside all of the world’s churches?” (p.52), “What if I want to heat my house using toasters. How many do I need?”(p.234) or, “If the Earth were a massive eye, how far would it see?”(p.149).
Throughout my reading of What if? 2, I found myself being consistently entertained and interested by the absurd questions brought forth and Randall Munroe’s expertly crafted responses. There was never a dull moment in the book as all of Munroe’s explanations managed to provide both entertainment, in addition to education. I never found myself confused by a topic due to the ability of the author to break down complex subjects to make them more understandable to the average person, while having them remain scientifically accurate. The drawings and illustrations present in each section also provided novel entertainment, as well as elaborating on the subjects of the sections and making them more understandable.
All of this brought into consideration, What if? 2 perfectly brings together educational, science based learning, and entertaining, absurd scenarios. The easily understandable presentation of complicated scientific ideas can give any reader a delightful and informative reading experience. The sectioned format present in What if? 2 offers the perfect book for reading when time is short, however the constantly engaging material means that reading for long stretches at a time never gets boring. As advice, I would recommend that readers research any topics in the book they have questions on, as one could find new and interesting information.
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