What if I wrote a book?

Posted bydavean 1,117 Comments on What if I wrote a book?

For the last couple years, I’ve been answering your science questions on What If.

Today, I’m excited to announce that the What If? book is coming!

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions will be published September 2nd by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Starting today you can pre-order it from your favorite bookseller (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indie Bound).  There are also foreign editions, including a UK and Commonwealth edition and a German edition.

As I’ve sifted through the letters submitted to What If every week, I’ve occasionally set aside particularly neat questions that I wanted to spend a little more time on. This book features my answers to those questions, along with revised and updated versions of some of my favorite articles from the site. (I’m also including my personal list of the weirdest questions people have submitted.)

Preorder today to get a copy as soon as it comes out!

1,117 replies on “What if I wrote a book?”

  2. You may want to consider whether it’s best for you to encourage pre-orders from online resellers, since they tend to reduce sales figures when the book comes out, and those figures can help make a book more visible on those resellers’ websites.

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  10. What if I want a non-English version, do you plan making a russian one?

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  12. So all of us who submitted questions that you did not select for the blog, have renewed hope that they might turn up in the book… Regardless, congratulations with your work.

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  13. If I hover my mouse over the pictures in the book, will it give extra information?

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  14. Yeah, it is available on amazon.fr… what if the price on amazon.fr was the same as amazon.de and not 5 euros more expensive ?!

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  15. Love you for the German edition! Thanks a lot!
    And don’t even think about allowing Bitcoins… That system is a mess.

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  16. Wow, I actually had no idea you even did a what-if feature until you announced the book! Now I’m 5 entries in and loving it, so I kind of want to buy the book for my son…who is 17 months old…he probably won’t understand much yet…but oh, when he does!

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  17. Yeah, Place 1 on in English Books and place 1331 in all books on amazon.de.

    I ordered both, just in case the translation doesn’t get the scientific humor.

    Two thumbs up!

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  19. Yay, though I take it no alt-text will come out if I place my finger on the graphics?

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  22. As we are updating best selling statuses, you are at #1 in Physics on Amazon.ca!

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  23. Don’t have an alternative contact.
    Your very useful clock (1335) has not been adjusted for DST! It isn’t self adjusting? So disappointed.

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  24. As a long time fan of xkcd (and having gained the honor of being able to say that I’ve looked at literally every.single.comic during a particularly slow summer as a concierge), I am so thrilled to hear about this book. I was just sharing your What If column with my boyfriend the other day, and I was reminded again of how much I enjoy just about everything you manage to produce. Best of luck with book sales!

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  25. What if I’m laughing so hard I can’t read your book? What if I’m thinking so hard that I fall off my chair? What if I’m enjoying your book so much that I forget to eat, or go to work, and stuff like that? Awesome! Looking forward…!

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  27. Bought and soon forgotten. I’ll have a happy surprise in several months lol You’re welcome future Matt ^-^

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  28. Hi Randall – any chance of signed copies? If I buy then send to you via raptor / blimp / machinegun jetpack, will you sign?

    Or are you doing a tour?

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  31. Pleeease do a Kindle version!!!!
    Or else make it available on amazon.br!!!
    or else make it both, then I’ll buy both the hard cover and the kindle edition!!

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  32. What if you could translate this book so I could give it to my little cousins to inspire them in sciences?

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  34. Amazon.ca is listing the US version, not the Commonwealth version, which one do you suggest a lover of colour, labour, and other non-US spellings want to buy?

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  35. Great news.. if i was vindictive I would hate you for ignoring my question, but im not and I am impressed the fact that you are making a German edition.

    Keep up the funny work!

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  36. So, how hard was it to redo all the answers using UK and Commonwealth math and physics? And what were the most surprising change of outcomes as a result?

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  39. What’s up with the Amazon UK prices?

    Amazon offer a “Price Guarantee” on this book – that means “if the Amazon.co.uk price decreases between the time you place your order and the release date, you’ll be charged the lowest price”. Seems simple enough.

    I ordered the book when the price was £14.79. It’s now £11.40. So I should get the cheaper price, right? Apparently not!

    The edition I ordered has since gone up to £14.99 and been renamed to “Hardcover, 4 Sep 2014”. Then there’s a *separate* edition called just “Hardcover”, which is £11.40. So that leaves me paying £14.79 when new purchasers can pay £11.40.

    What’s up with that?

    Is someone (Amazon or publisher) trying to game their way out of the Price Guarantee? Randall, please can you investigate this?

    Links:

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  42. Pingback: Follow Friday, 21/03/14 | The Aperiodical

  45. Hey there,

    Is not there some online version of this book? I do not really care if it have to has my name printed on every page or a password every time I open it, I just cannot go about affording those shipping costs to send it to where I live.

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  47. To Jon Spell, about your bobcat concern, the probability of you NOT receiving a bobcat, statistically speaking is not 0%. Just be alert. To paraphrase Ygritte, “You know nothing Jon Spell.” 😉

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  48. I have to have this, but only if a version using only SI-units exists… which one should I get if I can’t relate to measurements in feet and miles, gallons and inches?

    Thanks!

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  49. Pingback: Xkcd y el resultado de la genialidad | Incognitosis

  50. I’m honestly considering adopting this as a secondary textbook for a physics class I teach.

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