What If? 2 Book Review
What If 2 is a book by Randall Munroe that answers completely random questions using science. After I heard the sequel to What If? was released, I immediately went to buy it, as I enjoyed reading the first book very much. What If? 2 follows the same format as the first book, but with different questions.
What If? 2 has some vastly different questions than the first book, from questions such as “What if you were hanging on a helicopter blade by your hands and then someone turns it on?” to “What would happen if you shrunk Jupiter down to the size of a house and placed it in a neighborhood?” Randall Munroe uses math to explain what would happen, with lots of humor to make the book not sound like a textbook. Along with illustrations and comics to visualize the scenario, it is a fun read for everyone. There are jokes, rubs to scientists, such as “Sometimes when physicists say “expand,” what they mean is “explode.”
I can clearly tell that Munroe put a lot of time and effort into this book, researching each question thoroughly and asking real-life experts. He also uses many obscure books and research papers, such as the “Estimation of the Total Saliva Volume Produced Per Day in Five-Year-Old Children,” to base his calculations on. It will take you a year to fill a bathtub, according to Munroe. The book doesn’t just tell you what would happen, but also explains why that would happen. Along with the explanation, there are plenty of visual representation to help you comprehend the math. I learned a lot from reading this book, even if some (most) of the knowledge will be useless. From what would happen if Japan suddenly disappeared from Earth to stopping rain with lasers, there is no shortage of random stupid questions to read about (until the end of the book). If you want to know how long it would take you to drive to the edge of the universe or what would happen if all raindrops were lemon drops, this is the book for you.
I really enjoyed reading this book, as I learned stuff I never knew was needed (and still don’t). Most of the questions in this book are very harmful and destructive, and I had lots of fun reading about those scenarios. I bet you never knew that growing an inch will gain you an extra ten seconds of daylight annually. I totally recommend you read this book, and gain lots of extra knowledge you never needed to know.
