WHAT IF
Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe
Hachette India
303 pages (paperback); Rs 499
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) recently asked the Indian Railways if it was feasible to set up wind turbines along tracks to generate electricity by utilising the draught from passing trains.
This question seems borderline absurd. The energy generated is not worth the cost of equipment. There are also tricky issues in that badly placed turbines may increase wind resistance for trains. But there is a potentially large pay-off, which makes it worth investigating. It set off impassioned debates among laypersons on websites where the PMO's request was reported.
What If is a compilation of similar questions. The book starts with a disclaimer that sets the tone: "Do not try any of this at home. The author is an Internet cartoonist. He likes it when things catch fire or explode, which means he does not have your best interests in mind."
Randall Munroe is not only "an Internet cartoonist". While he makes an income from merchandise based on his cartoons, he has also designed robots for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and taught physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His stick-figure cartoons, often with embedded snarky roll-over commentary, have a cult following.
The International Astronomers Union has named an asteroid (4942 Munroe) in his honour. His website, xkcd.com, receives 70 million page views a month (that letter-combination was chosen because it is unpronounceable). He has also won a Hugo Award for his graphic novel, Time.
The What If concept sparked at an MIT lecture. Attention was flagging as Mr Munroe introduced concepts of energy and force. In a flash of inspiration, he livened things up by referencing The Empire Strikes Back and Jedi-master Yoda pulling Luke Skywalker's X-Wing spacecraft out of a lake by using "The Force". Back-of-the-envelope calculations using the equations he was teaching estimated how much power (19.2 kilowatts at peak) this might take.
That lecture was so popular that it prompted Mr Munroe to invite people to ask absurd questions. His answers are characterised by his sense of humour allied to solid research and scientific rigour. He has also broken new ground in the Popular Science genre, by brilliantly exploiting the Web as a medium, using embedded links, roll-over footnotes, and so on.
Let's take a typical example from this book. Somebody asked, "What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to experience fatal radiation? How long could I survive swimming at the surface?"
The answer starts: "Assuming you're a reasonably good swimmer, you could survive by treading water for anywhere between 10-40 hours. At some point, you would black out from fatigue and drown. This is also true if you swam in a pool without nuclear fuel at the bottom." The answer then segues on to explain how water is a good shield against radiation, citing references and anecdotes from the nuclear power industry.
In response to another question, Mr Munroe worked out how many Lego bricks are required to build a working bridge between New York and London. That involves solving many engineering issues (Lego bricks don't float; the Atlantic Ocean is widening). Given the cost estimate ($5 trillion plus), the author concluded that it would be cheaper to buy London, dismantle the city and ship every building piece-by-piece to New York (total cost: $2 trillion).
Some questions are not so esoteric. For example, somebody wanted to know how fast a car could travel over speed bumps with the passengers still surviving. Emergency departments of various hospitals have answers. Another question deals with the possibility of dispersing a hurricane by setting off a nuclear explosion at its centre. Apparently the United States Meteorology Department has been forced to answer this several times ("Not a good idea").
Then there's the physical size of the internet, the complexity of human brains, the possibility of flying aeroplanes on other planets of the solar system, the total possible information content of Twitter. These questions are all actually important in different ways.
This is why this lighthearted book (and by extension, the website that spawned it) really makes its bones as PopSci. It offers insights leavened with humour into the way science deals with the falsifiable and the measureable.
If a hypothesis can be tested, it is scientific, no matter how absurd it may seem. Many viable theories - including evolution, quantum mechanics, wave propagation in vacuum, and so on - started as apparently absurd hypotheses.
The satirical Ig Nobel Awards are awarded for research like this that "first make you laugh and then think". At least one Ig Nobel awardee (Andre Geim, who levitated frogs) has also won a physics Nobel. Several Ig Nobels have been handed out for research that proved useful. For example, the discovery that malaria mosquitoes are attracted to cheese helped in mosquito eradication, while the discovery that the physical application of bacon helped stop nosebleeds led to the isolation of a new blood-clotting agent.
The book is an utter delight. It mixes instruction, humour, whimsy and fantasy in unique fashion. It is probably best read and absorbed in discrete chunks, rather than at one go. Don't miss out on the (hilarious) footnotes, or the (serious) references at the back.
Twitter: @devangshudatta
