Clik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Into the Blue
Into the BlueIf I shot an infinitely strong laser beam into the sky at a random point, how much damage would it do?Garrett D.A lot of the time, if a question includes the word "infinity," the answer is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Walking New York
Walking New YorkCould a person walk the entire city of NY in their lifetime? (including inside apartments)Asaf ShamirLike the answer to Paint the Earth, the answer to the first part of this question is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): All the Money
All the MoneyPeople sometimes say "If I had all the money in the world ..." in order to discuss what they would do if they had no financial constraints. I'm curious, though, what would happen if one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Balloon Car
Balloon CarMy 12-year-old daughter is proposing an interesting project. She is planning to attach a number of helium balloons to a chair, which in turn would be tethered by means of a rope to a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Visit Every State
Visit Every StateHow fast could you visit all 50 states?—as discussed by Stephen Von Worley on Data PointedThis week's article is a little different. Instead of answering one of your questions, I'm...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Antimatter
AntimatterWhat if everything was antimatter, EXCEPT Earth?Sean GallagherThis one doesn't end well for us. But—unlike most scenarios involving the word "antimatter"—the end is surprisingly slow and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Into the Sun
Into the SunWhen I was about 8 years old, shoveling snow on a freezing day in Colorado, I wished that I could be instantly transported to the surface of the Sun, just for a nanosecond, then instantly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): No-Rules NASCAR
No-Rules NASCARIf you stripped away all the rules of car racing and had a contest which was simply to get a human being around a track 200 times as fast as possible, what strategy would win? Let's say...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Distant Death
Distant DeathWhat is the farthest from Earth that any Earth thing has died?—Amy from NZWith Halloween approaching, I guess it's the season for death-related questions.The farthest from Earth that any...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Physical Salary
Physical SalaryWhat if people's incomes appeared around them as cash in real time? How much would you need to make to be in real trouble?Julia Anderson, Albuquerque, NMFirst, let's think about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Black Hole Moon
Black Hole MoonWhat would happen if the Moon were replaced with an equivalently-massed black hole? If it's possible, what would a lunar ("holar"?) eclipse look like?—Matt"Not much" and "not much."A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Snow Removal
Snow RemovalI've long thought about putting a flamethrower on the front of a car to melt snow and ice before you drive across it. Now I've realized that a flamethrower is impractical, but what about a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Hotter than Average
Hotter than AverageI saw a sign at a hot springs tub saying "Caution: Water is hotter than average" with water at about 39°C. Although they were presumably trying to say "hotter than the average...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Flagpole
FlagpoleSo, you're falling from a height above the tallest building in your town, and you don't have a parachute. But wait! Partway down the side of that skyscraper there's a flagpole sticking out,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Space Burial
Space BurialI've often joked I'd like to have my remains put into orbit. Not in a "scatter my ashes" sense, but, like, "throw my naked corpse out the airlock" sense. Honestly, my main motivation is to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Digging Downward
Digging DownwardWhat would happen if I dug straight down, at a speed of 1 foot per second? What would kill me first?Jack KaunisThis question is the reverse of question #64, which asked how you'd die if...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Spiders vs. the Sun
Spiders vs. the SunWhich has a greater gravitational pull on me: the Sun, or spiders? Granted, the Sun is much bigger, but it is also much further away, and as I learned in high school physics, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): New Horizons
New HorizonsWhat if New Horizons hits my car?—Robin SheatThe New Horizons spacecraft is currently flying past Pluto.[1]Ever since astrophysicist Katie Mack pointed out that "New Horizons" appears in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Jupiter Submarine
Jupiter SubmarineWhat if you released a submarine into Jupiter's atmosphere? Would it eventually reach a point where it would float? Could it navigate?—KTHNope! Jupiter's pressure, density, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
XKCD QA (What If?): Jupiter Descending
Jupiter DescendingIf you did fall into Jupiter's atmosphere in a submarine, what would it actually look like? What would you see before you melted or burned up?—Ada MunroeWe don't know! We've only...
View Article