Randall Munroe is a NASA roboticist turned Web cartoonist with a cult following and a website, XKCD.com, that draws millions of people each week. And now he has a book. is a collection of his trademark doodles and clever responses to insanely complex scientific scenarios thrown at him by his fans. We asked him a question of our own:

Q: How many issues of Popular Mechanics would it take to sink a battleship?

RM: About 1.29 million copies of each issue of Popular Mechanics are printed. At an average weight of 5.12 ounces each, that's a total of 187 tons per issue (roughly, one blue whale). This would be enough to sink a medium-size tugboat, but a large battleship can carry over 50 times that much weight. To sink it, you would need to collect nearly a decade's worth of issues.

Fortunately, there's a faster alternative. On the day it was released, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold about 9 million copies. That's more than 250 pounds of books per second. In 24 hours over 10,000 tons of the books were sold. It's like the old saying goes: Magazines are heavy, but if you want to sink a battleship fast, you need a wizard. At least, I think that's the old saying.

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