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In the New York Times best-selling book from the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, Randall Munroe gives hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask.
Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?
In pursuit of answers, Munroe ran computer simulations, pored over stacks of declassified military research memos, solved differential equations, and consulted with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)
Far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.
Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?
In pursuit of answers, Munroe ran computer simulations, pored over stacks of declassified military research memos, solved differential equations, and consulted with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)
Far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.
Produktdetails
Erscheinungsdatum
02. September 2014
Sprache
englisch
Seitenanzahl
352
Autor/Autorin
Randall Munroe
Verlag/Hersteller
Produktart
gebunden
Gewicht
939 g
Größe (L/B/H)
236/188/32 mm
ISBN
9780544272996
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Pressestimmen
Praise for Randall Munroe, What If? and xkcd:
" What If? is one of my Internet must-reads, and I look forward to each new installment, and always read it with delight."
-Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
"Randall Munroe is a national treasure."
-Phil Plait
"For scientists, the price of progress is specialization. When the goal of any researcher is to lay claim to a tiny niche in a crowded discipline, it's hard for laypeople to find answers to the really important interdisciplinary questions. Questions like, 'Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?' Fortunately, such people can turn to Randall Munroe, the author of the XKCD comic strip loved by fans of internet culture. . . . For Munroe, who writes with a clarity and wit honed over eight years of writing captions for his webcomic, the fact that a question might be impossible to solve is no deterrent to pursuing it."
- Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog
"By speaking the language of geeks. . . while dealing with relationships and the meaning of a computer-centric life, xkcd has become required reading for techies across the world....The Internet has also created a bond between Mr. Munroe and his readers that is exceptional. They reenact in real life the odd ideas he puts forward in his strip." - The New York Times
"With his steady regimen of math jokes, physics jokes, and antisocial optimism, xkcd creator Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, scores traffic numbers in NBC.com or Oprah.com territory. One key to the strip's success may be that it doesn't just comment on nerd culture, it embodies nerd culture." - Wired , in an issue featuring "the people who have shaped the planet's past 20 years"
"Sometimes the beloved geek-chic webcomic xkcd is funny in a broadly accessible way. Sometimes it's achingly poignant, sometimes it's socially intelligent, and sometimes it's esoteric humor that programmers or scientists have to explain to the rest of us. But at its most ambitious, it either packs massive amounts of interesting information into a small space, or engages in breathtaking experiments with the medium....[A]t its best [xkcd] isn't a strip comic so much as an idea factory and a shared experience." - Onion AV Club
" What If? is one of my Internet must-reads, and I look forward to each new installment, and always read it with delight."
-Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
"Randall Munroe is a national treasure."
-Phil Plait
"For scientists, the price of progress is specialization. When the goal of any researcher is to lay claim to a tiny niche in a crowded discipline, it's hard for laypeople to find answers to the really important interdisciplinary questions. Questions like, 'Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?' Fortunately, such people can turn to Randall Munroe, the author of the XKCD comic strip loved by fans of internet culture. . . . For Munroe, who writes with a clarity and wit honed over eight years of writing captions for his webcomic, the fact that a question might be impossible to solve is no deterrent to pursuing it."
- Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog
"By speaking the language of geeks. . . while dealing with relationships and the meaning of a computer-centric life, xkcd has become required reading for techies across the world....The Internet has also created a bond between Mr. Munroe and his readers that is exceptional. They reenact in real life the odd ideas he puts forward in his strip." - The New York Times
"With his steady regimen of math jokes, physics jokes, and antisocial optimism, xkcd creator Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, scores traffic numbers in NBC.com or Oprah.com territory. One key to the strip's success may be that it doesn't just comment on nerd culture, it embodies nerd culture." - Wired , in an issue featuring "the people who have shaped the planet's past 20 years"
"Sometimes the beloved geek-chic webcomic xkcd is funny in a broadly accessible way. Sometimes it's achingly poignant, sometimes it's socially intelligent, and sometimes it's esoteric humor that programmers or scientists have to explain to the rest of us. But at its most ambitious, it either packs massive amounts of interesting information into a small space, or engages in breathtaking experiments with the medium....[A]t its best [xkcd] isn't a strip comic so much as an idea factory and a shared experience." - Onion AV Club
Bewertungen
LovelyBooks-Bewertung am 05.02.2017
"Was wäre, wenn?". Darum geht es in dem Buch " What if", wie der Titel unmissverständlich ankündigt. Der Physiker und Roboteringenieur Randall Munroe rief einst das Webseitenprojekt "xked" ins Leben, bei der Laien Fragen stellen können, deren Klärung sie schon immer interessierte. Die Fragen sind allesamt hypothetisch. Darunter sind auch Ideen, die verrückt wie irrwitzig sind. Munroe findet auf alle Antworten, denn für ihn gibt es keine dummen oder unwichtigen Fragen. Anhand wissenschaftlicher Fakten und Gesetze findet er plausible und anschauliche Erklärungen. Dabei helfen nicht zuletzt seine Strichzeichnungen, die er mit aberwitzigen Dialogen versetzt.Der Erfolg der Webseite hat es in die Form eines Buches geschafft. In "What if" hat Munroe seine Lieblingsfragen gesammelt, natürlich inklusive seiner akribisch genauen Antworten und der Zeichnungen. Dazu gehören auch "seltsame und beunruhigende Fragen", über die sich der Physiker wundert, sie trotzdem ernst nimmt, wie zum Beispiel "Welche logistischen Anomalien würden auftreten, wenn man versucht, eine Armee aus Affen heranzuziehen" oder "Wie schnell müsste ein Mensch rennen, um von einem Schneidedraht für Käse in Höhe des Bauchnabels durchtrennt zu werden". Die letzte Frage beantwortet der Physiker Munroe wie folgt: "AAAAAHHHH".Wer hin und wieder etwas Geduld aufbringt, lernt eine Menge über unsere Welt, Natur und die Magie der Physik. Die wissenschaftlichen Hintergründe sind verständlich und schrittweise erklärt. Vielleicht liest man hier nicht an einem Tag einhundert Seiten, weil die Geschichte so spannend ist, aber Tag für Tag taucht der Leser in gedankliche Experimente, die ein breites Grinsen, Staunen oder Kopfschütteln verursachen.
LovelyBooks-Bewertung am 06.12.2016
Interessante und schräge Fragen, die zwar wissenschaftlich aber leicht verständlich beantwortet werden. Nicht nur für "Nerds" geeignet!