廣受歡迎的xkcd網站作者蘭德爾‧門羅,隆重推出《如果這樣,會怎樣?》為大家解答匪夷所思的重要問題。
每星期都有幾百萬人瀏覽xkcd.com網站,專程為了看蘭德爾‧門羅的網路漫畫。眾多粉絲也問了他好多奇奇怪怪的問題:
開車撞到減速坡仍安然存活的最快車速是多快?
如果某人的DNA憑空消失會怎樣?
在紐約市橫衝直撞的雷克斯暴龍,一天要吃掉多少人才吃得飽?
為了求出答案,蘭德爾‧門羅進行電腦模擬、挖出已解密的軍事研究紀錄、請教核反應器的操作人員、用碼錶為「星際大戰」電影的場景計時、打電話問他媽媽,還用Google搜尋一些看起來很恐怖的動物。本書從xkcd網站中挑選出最熱門的問題,但也加入很多全新內容(約51%)。
由蘭德爾‧門羅來當你的嚮導,科學很快就會變得無厘頭且逗趣。
例如,你會知道,
以接近光速投出的棒球,可能會夷平整個城區;
一莫耳的鼴鼠,可能會使行星窒息於一層肉當中;
電影「星際大戰」裡的尤達大師,可以用原力來幫電動Smart車充電。
從「遇見你的靈魂伴侶」到「以真正元素來建立週期表的種種死法」,
蘭德爾‧門羅都以令人捧腹大笑、佩服不已的答案,
為我們解釋一切。
歡迎來到《如果這樣,會怎樣?》的異想世界。
A special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?, the classic million-copy best-seller from the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, featuring new material that asks What If? x 10. This "brilliant" (Rolling Stone) book offers hilarious and informative answers to absurd questions you probably never thought to ask.
Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?
In pursuit of answers, Munroe ran computer simulations, pored over stacks of declassified military research memos, solved differential equations, and consulted with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)
In celebration of 10 years, Randall Munroe has revised his classic blockbuster to ask What If? x 10. What happens when you up the stakes by a factor of ten? The result is a 10X adventure of scientific insight and inquiry. Featuring brand new 2 color annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition is far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.