Clik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Sunless Earth
Sunless EarthWhat would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off?—Many, many readersThis is probably the single most popular question submitted to What If.Part of why I haven’t answered it...
View ArticleXKCD QA (What If?): Extreme Boating
Extreme Boating Question:What would it be like to navigate a rowboat through a lake of mercury? What about bromine? Liquid gallium? Liquid tungsten? Liquid nitrogen? Liquid helium? By:–Nicholas Aron...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Free Fall
Free FallWhat place on Earth would allow you to freefall the longest by jumping off it? What about using a squirrel suit?—Dhash ShrivathsaThe largest purely vertical drop on Earth is the face of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Bouncy Balls
Bouncy BallsWhat if one were to drop 3,000 bouncy balls from a seven story parking structure onto a person walking on the sidewalk below? Should the person survive, what would be the number of bouncy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Drain the Oceans
Drain the OceansHow quickly would the ocean's drain if a circular portal 10 meters in radius leading into space was created at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean? How would...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Bouncy Balls
Bouncy BallsWhat if one were to drop 3,000 bouncy balls from a seven story parking structure onto a person walking on the sidewalk below? Should the person survive, what would be the number of bouncy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Random Sneeze Call
Random Sneeze CallIf you call a random phone number and say “God bless you”, what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed? On average, not just in spring or fall.–MimiIt's hard to find...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Restraining an Airplane
Restraining an AirplaneIf you wanted to anchor an airplane into the ground so it wouldn't be able to take off, what would the rope have to be made out of?—Connor ChilderhoseAh, the Just Cause 2...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Dropping a Mountain
Dropping a MountainWhat if a huge mountain—Denali, say—had the bottom inch of its base disappear? What would happen from the impact of the mountain falling 1 inch? What about 1 foot? What if the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Orbital Speed
Orbital SpeedWhat if a spacecraft slowed down on re-entry to just a few miles per hour using rocket boosters like the Mars-sky-crane? Would it negate the need for a heat shield?—BrianIs it possible for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Updating a Printed Wikipedia
Updating a Printed WikipediaIf you had a printed version of the whole of (say, the English) Wikipedia, how many printers would you need in order to keep up with the changes made to the live...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Signs of Life
Signs of LifeIf you could teleport to a random place of the surface of the Earth, what are the odds that you'll see signs of intelligent life?Borislav StanimirovThe surface of the Earth is about 70%...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Speed Bump
Speed BumpHow fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?Myrlin BarberSurprisingly fast.First, a disclaimer: After reading this article, don't try to drive over speed bumps at high speeds....
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Falling With Helium
Falling With HeliumWhat if I jumped out of an airplane with a couple of tanks of helium and one huge, un-inflated balloon? Then, while falling, I release the helium and fill the balloon. How long of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Google's Datacenters on Punch Cards
Google's Datacenters on Punch CardsIf all digital data were stored on punch cards, how big would Google's data warehouse be?James ZetlenGoogle almost certainly has more data storage capacity than any...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Rising Steadily
Rising SteadilyIf you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second, how exactly would you die? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else?Rebecca B.Did you bring a coat?A foot per...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Twitter Timeline Height
Twitter Timeline HeightIf our Twitter timelines (tweets by the people we follow) actually extended off the screen in both directions, how tall would they be?AnonymousThis is a surprisingly tricky...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): 500 MPH
500 MPHIf winds reached 500 mph, would it pick up a human?Grey Flynn, age 7, Stoneham, MAAbsolutely!Some things don't work like they do in the movies. Getting shot doesn't really make someone fly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Expanding Earth
Expanding EarthHow long would it take for people to notice their weight gain if the mean radius of the world expanded by 1cm every second? (Assuming the average composition of rock were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Little Planet
Little PlanetIf an asteroid was very small but supermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince?Samantha HarperLast week, we looked at at life on a giant world. This week, let's look at...
View Article