Book: What If?

Like "We Have No Idea" this a science book for non-scientists, using real science to answer absurd questions. What would happen if everyone on earth jumped at the same time? How big is a mole of moles? Could we illuminate the moon from earth using lasers?

Entertaining. Weird. Sometimes a little scary. The author also runs the XKCD website which is worth visiting.

This is a book I resisted picked up because a year or so ago I spent a whole afternoon thumbing through it in a bookstore. I thought I knew it pretty well.

I didn't really. There are LOTS Of fascinating tidbits I'd missed.

For instance, the author explains, in layman's language, for the first time in my reading why clones and sibling marriages produce offspring which is genetically inferior. Has to do with the multiplier factor of DNA. Fascinating stuff. Complicated but almost understandable the way Monroe explains it.

Or why achieving low earth orbit is so difficult. It's not that far away -- only about 1200 miles straight up, two days driving in your Toyota.

The problem is that for centrifugal force to overcome gravity at that height, you have to be traveling at nearly 18,000 mph.

People tend to think the Richter scale goes from one to ten.

It doesn't. It goes farther in both directions. A -15 tremor would be a piece of dust landing on your table. A +15 tremor would be what the Death Star did to Alderaan.