An Early Look At XKCD’s Upcoming What If? Book

XKCD’s What If — that extra-special corner of the internet that answers all of our nerdiest, most absurd questions in delightfully extensive detail — is finally being made into a book. And fortunately for all those who just can’t wait, Nerdist has the very first look inside.



In his new book, the brilliant mind (and ex-NASA roboticist) behind XKCD, Randall Munroe, will be answering all of the following questions and more:

If everyone on the planet stayed away from each other for a couple of weeks, wouldn’t the common cold be wiped out?

How many LEGO bricks would it take to build a bridge capable of carrying traffic from London to New York?

If two immortal people were placed on the opposite sides of an uninhabited Earthlike planet, how long would it take them to find each other?

If every human somehow disappeared from the face of the Earth, how long would it take before the last artificial light went out?

How much computing power could we achieve if the entire world stopped what they were doing and started doing calculations?

And as an added bonus, the entire dust jacket is one big, elaborately drawn version of a What If question from last year. The question itself asked how long it wold take for the oceans to drain if a portal suddenly opened up at the deepest spot in the ocean (hundreds of thousands of years). But this is what we would end up with:

Head over to Nerdist to see more soon-to-be answered questions, and don’t worry, you won’t have to wait too long for the answers — the book comes out on September 2. [Nerdist]