Book Review: What If?

Have you read What If?  by Randall Munroe, the creator of the famous xkcd comics?

This book is unlike any traditional science text. Munroe takes the strangest, funniest, and sometimes downright ridiculous questions—like “What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?”—and answers them with real science, math, and a healthy dose of humor. What makes it special is that you don’t need to be a professional physicist or mathematician to enjoy it. The explanations are written in an approachable way, with clever stick-figure illustrations that keep things light while still making you think.

Whether you’re a nerd who is deeply serious about STEM, or someone who leans more toward the arts and humanities, What If?  is the kind of book that works for everyone. It’s perfect to pick up during a study break, when you’re bored, or when you just want to see how science can be used to explore the absurd. It’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and strangely inspiring—it reminds us that curiosity, no matter how odd the question, can lead to fascinating insights about the universe.

I’ve had this book since 6th grade, and it’s still one of my favorites on the bookshelf. No matter how many times I read it, I always stumble upon something new—whether it’s a quirky detail in the illustrations, a fresh perspective in the explanations that I didn’t catch before, or even a “what if” question that I come up with myself, like what would it be like to play golf on Mars?