Awesome Xkcd

xkcd’s What If? Answers the question of what it might be like if astronauts installed a swimming pool on the Moon. Our first thought was that the low gravity would make the water float away, but it turns out that you could swim in it just like on Earth, but with a few awesome bonus features. Time to get to work on this, SpaceX.

The latest episode of xkcd’s What If starts with the titular question. However, they arrive quickly at the conclusion. So they ask a new question: What if we tried more power? And ask it again. And again. And again. We like to imagine a kid submitted the question and is now watching the video with the weight of 8 billion souls on their tiny back.

The “glass half-full/half-empty” idiom offers a simplistic way of comparing pessimistic and optimistic thoughts. xkcd’s What If? explores the physics at work if a glass was literally half-empty and that space was filled with a vacuum. The outcome would be quite different depending on which half was liquid and which half was the vacuum.

We all know that the Sun is a terribly hot place. But would you burn to a crisp if you somehow landed on its surface for a nanosecond and then instantly came back to Earth? xkcd’s What If? explores another viewer-submitted hypothetical situation and explains how things would turn out much worse if you transported yourself to the Sun’s core.

Scientists recently discovered what appears to be water deep in the outer crust of Mars. xkcd’s What If? imagines what might happen if we gave the red planet a leg up in the moisture department and dumped all of Earth’s water on its surface. While most of it would probably freeze, there’s a chance it could cause temperatures to rise and stay liquid.

Wikipedia is the world’s largest repository of human knowledge. For fun, xckd’s What If? calculated how many printers you’d need to keep up with the edits being made every day – just to the English site. This Wikipedia page shows how many books you’d need to hold only English articles without images. Now, multiply by 10 to get the global numbers.

It’s not something anyone wants to think about, but someday humans may go extinct. xkcd’s What If? contemplates how long it would take before the last artificial source of light went out if no humans were around to tend to electrical systems or replace light bulbs. While some power sources would stop quickly, others could keep running for years.

Imagine, if you will, that Mother Nature focused her energy on a single location and hit it with all of her electrical fury. xkcd’s What If? takes on another hypothetical question, exploring what might happen if every lightning bolt struck a single spot on Earth and whether we could harvest the power from the mega-storm.

Randall Munroe and Henry Reich’s What If? attempts to answer the hypothetical question of what might happen if every living human stood close together, jumped off of the ground, and landed at the same exact time. While the answer to that question is less exciting than you might think, there would be plenty of unintended consequences of such an event.

xckd takes on another ridiculous hypothetical question: “What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?” While it probably won’t kill you the second you dive into a tank filled with spent nuclear fuel rods, it’s not something we would recommend. Also, we can’t believe somebody actually has that as a job.

xkcd’s What If? is back with another hypothetical question. This time, a follower asked: “How long could a nuclear submarine last in orbit?” Along the way, you’ll learn if a sub’s hull could withstand the conditions in space, and more importantly, what might happen to its occupants and nuclear reactor.

Some people have tried to make unconventional umbrellas, but for the most part, a traditional design is the most efficient way to keep raindrops from falling on your head. In this clip from Randall Munroe and Henry Reich’s What If? series, they explore a hypothetical and impractical invention – a powerful laser that vaporizes raindrops out of the sky as they fall.

Imagine, for a moment, that it was possible to pitch a baseball at 90% of the speed of light. Not only would you easily eliminate the batter, but there would be other major consequences according to this hypothetical physics exploration by the mighty Randall Munroe of xkcd. Weapons makers, don’t get any funny ideas.

You might not feel it, but the Earth is spinning quite quickly. Depending on your latitude, you could be going more than 1000 MPH. xkcd’s What If? explores what might happen if, all of a sudden, the planet stopped spinning and the atmosphere kept going. Things wouldn’t bode well for living creatures or structures, thanks to the extreme wind and waves.

xkcd’s What If series ponders another viewer-submitted question. With no regard for rules, what would be the fastest way to get a human around a race track 200 times – without killing the driver. After coming up with some creative solutions, it turns out the limiting factor isn’t the vehicle, it’s the person inside of it.

Any earthquake above a magnitude 5 can do damage, and levels higher than that can turn serious or deadly. xkcd’s What If? ponders the question of what sort of horrible things would happen if something much more intense hit our planet, say a magnitude 15 or higher. Who knew that there were negative magnitude quakes?