WhatIf_

what if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions RANDALL MUNROE HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT 2014 • BOSTON • NEW YORK Copyright © 2014 by xkcd Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003. www.hmhco.com The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows: Munroe, Randall, author. What if? : serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions / Randall Munroe. pages cm ISBN 978-0-544-27299-6 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-544-45686-0 (international pbk.) 1. Science — Miscellanea. I. Title. Q 173.M965 2014 500 — dc23 2014016311 Book design by Christina Gleason Lyrics from “If I Didn’t Have You” © 2011 by Tim Minchin. Reprinted by permission of Tim Minchin. e ISBN 978-0-544-27264-4 V1.0914 QUESTIONS Disclaimer [>] Introduction [>] Global Windstorm [>] Relativistic Baseball [>] Spent Fuel Pool [>] Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox, #1 [>] New York–Style Time Machine [>] Soul Mates [>]......