What would happen if everyone on Earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?

In the book What If, former NASA roboticist and xkcd creator Randall Munroe answers questions about absurd situations that I didn’t know I needed to know. What makes What If an engaging read is Munroe’s ability to take complex scientific concepts and distill them in layman’s terms. Whether he is exploring the consequence of a hypothetical nuclear explosion or explaining the physical breakdown of a baseball thrown at near-light speed, Munroe is strikingly charming within his narration.

Munroe’s xkcd humor is on full display throughout What If. He explains the dangers of inbreeding by explaining DNA sequences with a Dungeons & Dragons stat breakdown. He converts the likelihood of a student guessing a perfect score on the SAT in number of consecutive lightning strikes. Whether he’s riffing on the absurdity of the scenarios that he’s analyzing or cracking engineering jokes, Munroe manages to do a lot outside of his traditional form of work.

While his thoughtfulness is certainly to be admired, I did find myself sometimes bored of how complicated he would complicate certain scenarios. His thoroughness in his approach to explore all angles of a question is certainly a great strength if the question is interesting, but for the occasional question that misses the mark, it quickly feels bloated and repetitive. Sometimes he would go on tangents with complex calculations that would inevitably lead to the same result.

Despite this quirk, What If is a great book to digest in small doses for anyone who is interested in science, humor, or learning new things. Whether you are an advanced physicist or a very casual reader, you will be impressed with Munroe’s creativity in the language of science.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Update (5/23/23): I was lent a copy of What If 2, and I am happy to announce that it is more of the same formula that makes the first book work so well.

Here is one of my favorite xkcd comics: