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. Since I couldn’t find it in Russian – will there be a translation? I don’t really need one, but it would broaden the circle of people I could present it to. I can totally volunteer for the job, if needed.

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  3. Even though I’m crushed you never used my ‘What If?” .. (How many could you POSSIBLY get anyways?) I will buy this book, and use it for gifts, and bathroom reading! But to make it a truly stupendous offering, you need to make it available by e-book!! ( preferably Noon/Barnes & Nobels!) But I’ll still buy hard copies suitable for framing!

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  4. I want! Once I submitted a question to do with paper cuts, and another time I submitted one about shadows and triangulation and boring stuff. Next time I have a dumb question, I’ll be sure to ask.

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  8. You might want to have it in different languages, like Chinese. The online shopping in developed cities in China like 香港，北京，上海，天津 are very advanced, especially on sites like Amazon.cn. The Chinese people pride reading and knowledge, and it could potentially be a new market.

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  9. what is the difference between the UK and the US version? Different measurement units? And what is different in the german version?

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  15. Fantastic news! What if? I look forward to every week’s episode! If the book format resembles the webpage, the stories will be the perfect length for a bedtime story for my 8-year-old!

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  16. Would you be hip enough to consider taking payments in bitcoins?
    I think both endeavors would benefit greatly from the synergy of two way publicity; bitcoiners would benefit from the publicity of another influential figure displaying open-mindedness and your book would benefit from bitcoiners eagerly plugging your book to every remote corners of their internet territory.

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  17. Oh, sodding hell!
    I’m buying ten of these for every person I know.

    BUT!
    What is the difference between the US and UK version?
    (I must have the one with metric units, I must)

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  20. Very excited for you Randall! I’m contacting my local book store to see if they’ll stock it.

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  21. I tried to preorder it on Amazon, but the only thing that comes up is the xkcd:volume 0 book.

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  24. >Jørgen on March 24, 2014 at 3:06 am said:
    I’m buying ten of these for every person I know.

    One should probably be sufficient. Give them 10 and you are likely to get lot regifted back to you.

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  27. Please, PLEASE, make digital editions available. Unfortunately, shipping fees make a good part of US originated products way too expensive in Brazil.

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  28. Here was my suggestion: What if the “Dark Knight” scenario described by Joker really happened? “An unstoppable force hits an immovable object”? Would the atoms just phase through each other through all the open space between particles, releasing a ton of energy? Or would one of them have to stop/move?

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  29. Hmmm… after reading some of the comments here it seems there are two English versions. On amazon.de there’s sold only one (and the German one ofc). So I would really like to know what’s the difference between the AE and the BE version (if any), so I can decide wether to buy on amazon.de, co.uk or com. I won’t buy the German version since I guess the translation will be meh (or at least less funny)…

    There’s another thing I’m curious about. According to amazon.de the German version has 300 pages and the English one’s 336. Since German sentences are in general longer than their English translations I’m wondering what’s going on here. Or is it just the format/font size? Unfortunately amazon.de says nothing about the actual size of the book.

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  30. I see a German edition, but will there be a French edition ?
    It could be also interesting for some Canadians readers I think.

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  32. Wow! Your book is already at #98 on the Amazon.com bestseller list! Very impressive. Look forward to reading this, as I enjoy your weekly posts!

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  33. >Jørgen on March 24, 2014 at 3:06 am said:
    I’m buying ten of these for every person I know.

    >Tony Aiuto on March 24, 2014 at 10:04 pm said:
    One should probably be sufficient. Give them 10 and you are likely to get lot regifted back to you.

    I think 10 is the perfect quantity. one to read and one to save.

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  35. “I want a digital version so I don’t have to exert my underdeveloped upper extremities holding a heavy stack of bound papers and turning pages and what-not.”

    Good lord people, go outside.

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  38. Two things:
    1) please get a partner link-thing with Amazon! I want to pre-order the book, but I also want you to get the highest payout. Usually published bloggers have a creativeASIN to get a bonus fee.
    2) +1 on the signing thing. I’d happily pay 50 $ for a hardback with a signed shoutout, incl. intl. shipping. The US dollar is dirt cheap at the moment, so take advantage of non-Americans being pseudo-rich.

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  39. I believe the UK version just has several misspelled words, like colour and instead of standing in lines and getting into trucks people stand in queues and get into lorries.

    Personally I hope he releases a Canadian version of the book, eh.

    Not that I am Canadian, but I think it would be even funnier.

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  41. This is great! However…how will you handle the pop-up info stuff when one clicks on the references? And how about the pop up messages which appear when you hover over the drawings? These add several extra dimensions to my understanding the article and to my enjoyment when reading them.

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    I’ve read this post and if I could I want to suggest you few interesting things or suggestions.
    Perhaps you can write next articles referring to this article.
    I desire to read more things about it!

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  50. Okay, I preordered your book. Now the pressure is all on you. You have to actually write it.

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