...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

What If? (Blog)

871 statements
171 feature instances
82 referencing feature instances

What If? (Blog)	type	TVTItem
What If? (Blog)	label	What If? (Blog)
What If? (Blog)	page	WhatIf
What If? (Blog)	comment	What If? is a blog by Randall Munroe, the creator of the Stick-Figure Comic xkcd, started 10 July 2012. Updated erratically*Originally it was Tuesdays, but it gradually shifted to "when I feel like it" starting about 2016., he answers off-the-wall reader questions using math, science, and xkcd-style cartoons. Randall has a Twitter feed, @whatifnumbers, of numbers he comes up with while writing the blog. He's also published a book, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, containing several of the more popular answers and some new ones. The book received a follow up, What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, in 2022.Not to be confused with the trope What If? or What If?, a Marvel series speculating on changes to the Marvel universe.Think of it as textual MythBusters with hypothetical scenarios.In 2019, Munroe started Good Question, a column in The New York Times where he answers reader-submitted questions, similarly to What If?.In 2023, What If? The Video Series, an official video adaptation of the books, started on YouTube. It is narrated by Randall himself and produced by Neptune Studios LLC (the producers of MinutePhysics and spinoffs).The examples below are only for the blog itself, the first book in the series, and the video series, which generally share many questions together. For the second book, see What If? 2.
What If? (Blog)	fetched	2024-05-01T16:17:01Z
What If? (Blog)	parsed	2024-05-01T16:17:01Z
What If? (Blog)	processingComment	Dropped link to BookOfRevelation: Not a Feature - ITEM
What If? (Blog)	processingComment	Dropped link to CallBack: Not a Feature - ITEM
What If? (Blog)	processingComment	Dropped link to CutYourHeartOutWithASpoon: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
What If? (Blog)	processingComment	Dropped link to LastOfItsKind: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
What If? (Blog)	processingComment	Dropped link to Thor: Not a Feature - ITEM
What If? (Blog)	processingComment	Dropped link to Wikipedia: Not a Feature - ITEM
What If? (Blog)	processingUnknown	CutYourHeartOutWithASpoon
What If? (Blog)	processingUnknown	LastOfItsKind
What If? (Blog)	isPartOf	DBTropes
What If? (Blog) / int_1161fb48	type	Bizarre Alien Biology
What If? (Blog) / int_1161fb48	comment	Bizarre Alien Biology: "Green Cows", or how much food cows would need if they were photosynthetic.Answer: 96% of the food needed by a regular cow.*
What If? (Blog) / int_1161fb48	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_1161fb48	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_1161fb48
What If? (Blog) / int_128e4ba8	type	Gatling Good
What If? (Blog) / int_128e4ba8	comment	Gatling Good: "Machine Gun Jetpack" eventually escalates from an AK-47 to a Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30, which if properly set up, can jump mountains.
What If? (Blog) / int_128e4ba8	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_128e4ba8	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_128e4ba8
What If? (Blog) / int_15200cf7	type	No Bikes in the Apocalypse
What If? (Blog) / int_15200cf7	comment	No Bikes in the Apocalypse: The YouTube version of "Everyone Jump" depicts the new human civilization as a Mad Max-esque post-collapse society where everyone uses tricked-out, spiky motor vehicles rather than bicycles. Even though the event that caused this (all humans being teleported to Rhode Island) caused causing massive logistical disruption for humankind's resources.
What If? (Blog) / int_15200cf7	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_15200cf7	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_15200cf7
What If? (Blog) / int_15b2cab3	type	Tempting Fate
What If? (Blog) / int_15b2cab3	comment	Tempting Fate: in "Pressure Cooker"
What If? (Blog) / int_15b2cab3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_15b2cab3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_15b2cab3
What If? (Blog) / int_17a969de	type	No OSHA Compliance
What If? (Blog) / int_17a969de	comment	No OSHA Compliance: In "All The Money", Randall notes that even if you could manage to avoid your money skyscraper killing you, you would be breaking building codes by not having enough bedrock to hold it up. He wonders if Scrooge McDuck ever had to worry about this.
What If? (Blog) / int_17a969de	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_17a969de	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_17a969de
What If? (Blog) / int_19df659c	type	Gone Horribly Wrong
What If? (Blog) / int_19df659c	comment	Gone Horribly Wrong: The splash image and cover of the book depict a Tyrannosaurus rex being lowered into a Sarlacc pit on a crane, excellently illustrating the tone of the blog. The back cover of the book, under the dust jacket, shows the outcome of this scenario: The T-Rex swings to the side of the pit, bites off its harness, damages the support structure of the crane, and runs down the man on the ground. Clever girl. There's also Truth in Television example discussed in "Flood Death Valley", where a mistake in irrigation of the Colorado River led to a flood inadvertantly turning the Salton Basin into the Salton Sea, which quickly became a Polluted Wasteland.
What If? (Blog) / int_19df659c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_19df659c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_19df659c
What If? (Blog) / int_1af31988	type	Logical Extreme
What If? (Blog) / int_1af31988	comment	Logical Extreme: Some of the hilarity in the posts comes from the progressively more ridiculous situations the What If? suggests (the ever-so-popular "What if we tried more power?" being one of them). They're plausible in Real Life, just not humanly (and, in some cases, inhumanly) possible.
What If? (Blog) / int_1af31988	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_1af31988	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_1af31988
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7a68f1	type	Alt Text
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7a68f1	comment	(in Alt Text) "What do I have against [the rover] Curiosity? Well, I'm working for the Cat."
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7a68f1	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7a68f1	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_1b7a68f1
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7d59b6	type	Death by Materialism
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7d59b6	comment	Death by Materialism: In "All the money", you will eventually be killed by the tide of money falling if you don't build a wall around it.
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7d59b6	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_1b7d59b6	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_1b7d59b6
What If? (Blog) / int_1ba8eb64	type	Visual Pun
What If? (Blog) / int_1ba8eb64	comment	Visual Pun: The third image on "The Constant Groundskeeper" shows a cougar chasing a guy riding a John Deere riding mower. Explained by the Alt Text: "Flyover States" in the book includes a slightly difficult-to-decipher visual pun right before a reveal: a drum rolling down a hill.
What If? (Blog) / int_1ba8eb64	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_1ba8eb64	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_1ba8eb64
What If? (Blog) / int_1d8733d3	type	Overly Narrow Superlative
What If? (Blog) / int_1d8733d3	comment	Overly Narrow Superlative: "Great Tree" ends with Randall's "favorite piece of axe-related legal trivia". As the accompanying footnote lampshades, it's not a long list.
What If? (Blog) / int_1d8733d3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_1d8733d3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_1d8733d3
What If? (Blog) / int_2179db6b	type	Emoticon
What If? (Blog) / int_2179db6b	comment	Emoticon: In "Far-Travelling Objects":
What If? (Blog) / int_2179db6b	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_2179db6b	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_2179db6b
What If? (Blog) / int_21d70919	type	Crapsack World
What If? (Blog) / int_21d70919	comment	Crapsack World: #120 consists of snatches of his blog from a horrifying alternate universe, answering questions such as how many spiders the average human is currently swallowing per second, and the need for modern scuba gear to be operable when immersed in blood.
What If? (Blog) / int_21d70919	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_21d70919	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_21d70919
What If? (Blog) / int_22071825	type	I'm a Humanitarian
What If? (Blog) / int_22071825	comment	I'm a Humanitarian: "Cannibalism" discusses what would happen if everyone did this.
What If? (Blog) / int_22071825	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_22071825	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_22071825
What If? (Blog) / int_222dc873	type	Black Comedy
What If? (Blog) / int_222dc873	comment	Black Comedy: Pretty much every one of these involves some way whatever it is could kill you or make something that's really Squicky. And it's full of jokes.
What If? (Blog) / int_222dc873	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_222dc873	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_222dc873
What If? (Blog) / int_22ffc004	type	In Case of X, Break Glass
What If? (Blog) / int_22ffc004	comment	In Case of X, Break Glass: According to "Sunset On The British Empire", the interior walls of Buckingham Palace have numerous 'In Case Of Emergency, Break Glass' boxes. Each one has a cup of tea in it.
What If? (Blog) / int_22ffc004	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_22ffc004	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_22ffc004
What If? (Blog) / int_2439b588	type	As the Good Book Says...
What If? (Blog) / int_2439b588	comment	As the Good Book Says...: Parodied. Randall butchers a line from Revelation Chapter 6 in the sixth image of "Great Tree, Great Axe": Again in the third image of "All the Money", this time butchering 1 Timothy 6:10:
What If? (Blog) / int_2439b588	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_2439b588	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_2439b588
What If? (Blog) / int_263bb4ec	type	Wave-Motion Gun
What If? (Blog) / int_263bb4ec	comment	Wave-Motion Gun: The whole point of "Sunbeam"; all of the Sun's output of visible light were concentrated into a laser-like light with a diameter of 1 meter hitting Earth, reducing it into a charred husk.
What If? (Blog) / int_263bb4ec	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_263bb4ec	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_263bb4ec
What If? (Blog) / int_26ac510e	type	Mythology Gag
What If? (Blog) / int_26ac510e	comment	Mythology Gag: Since the illustrative diagrams are drawn in the same style as xkcd, they sometimes feature guest appearances by characters from there. They also feature allusions to the main webcomic. Most obviously, the Black Hat Guy has made several appearances. One of the images in "Falling With Helium" is the balloon guy from the beginning of the famous Infinite Canvas xkcd "Click and Drag" (and clicking on him loads that page). The Running Gag about "You will not go to space today" is a recycled joke from xkcd's Up Goer Five strip. "Star Sand" ends with a picture of Cueball building a sand castle. The Alt Text reads, "Just to be clear, this image does not update every hour." "Into the Blue" features a character hell-bent on destroying the Moon, from a previous xkcd strip. On the last image of "Stop Jupiter", the tennis ball has Penn 15 on it. In "Drain the Oceans II", the Alt Text of the image of the water landing on the Curiosity rover and making it (briefly) happy, refers to Spirit being sad forever. "Longest Sunset" ends with a reference to "Angular Momentum" The first image in "Comet Ice has Black Hat Guy offering to plug an overflowing Diet Coke bottle with Mentos. The Alt Text says "Some of the lucky 10,000 are less lucky than others".
What If? (Blog) / int_26ac510e	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_26ac510e	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_26ac510e
What If? (Blog) / int_26e5c183	type	Polluted Wasteland
What If? (Blog) / int_26e5c183	comment	Polluted Wasteland: What would happen if you flooded the Death Valley. We know this, because we did it to the Salted Basin in Real Life, by accident.
What If? (Blog) / int_26e5c183	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_26e5c183	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_26e5c183
What If? (Blog) / int_28d73447	type	Regional Redecoration
What If? (Blog) / int_28d73447	comment	Regional Redecoration: Drain the Oceans shows maps of Earth in various phases of being drained from water by a portal at the bottom of Challenger Deep (and being gradually conquered by the Netherlands). The "sequel" follows that up with maps of Mars getting filled with water dumped from Earth (and being rechristened "New Netherlands").
What If? (Blog) / int_28d73447	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_28d73447	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_28d73447
What If? (Blog) / int_295087bf	type	Non-Indicative Name
What If? (Blog) / int_295087bf	comment	Non-Indicative Name: In-universe, in the Alt Text for one of the images on "Transatlantic Car Rental", Randall thought NATO is an organization formed to defeat the North Atlantic.
What If? (Blog) / int_295087bf	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_295087bf	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_295087bf
What If? (Blog) / int_29a39f6	type	Easter Egg
What If? (Blog) / int_29a39f6	comment	Easter Egg: If you remove the dust jacket from the hardback book, you will find a different cover picture, and a map of the world after the oceans have been drained on the inside of the dust jacket.
What If? (Blog) / int_29a39f6	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_29a39f6	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_29a39f6
What If? (Blog) / int_2bdae2ae	type	Awesome, but Impractical
What If? (Blog) / int_2bdae2ae	comment	Awesome, but Impractical: According to "All the Lightning" from the book, which all but quotes the trope name verbatim: Hilariously Double Subverted in "Snow Removal". Using a flamethrower to melt snow in front of your car is actually more efficient than using a giant microwave emitter. But it's still hilariously inefficient: you'd make about seventeen feet per gallon of fuel.
What If? (Blog) / int_2bdae2ae	featureApplicability	-0.3
What If? (Blog) / int_2bdae2ae	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_2bdae2ae
What If? (Blog) / int_30e6200f	type	Missing Steps Plan
What If? (Blog) / int_30e6200f	comment	Missing Steps Plan:"Pyramid Energy", asking if the energy it took to build the Great Pyramid would be enough to send a mission to the moon and back, uses this in the second image. Said image consists of the pyramid broken down and fed through a box marked "?", then launching a rocket.
What If? (Blog) / int_30e6200f	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_30e6200f	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_30e6200f
What If? (Blog) / int_31254f02	type	Two-Keyed Lock
What If? (Blog) / int_31254f02	comment	Two-Keyed Lock: Parodied in "Global Snow" with the idea that the National Weather Service's snow depth-measuring board is important enough to be double-locked.
What If? (Blog) / int_31254f02	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_31254f02	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_31254f02
What If? (Blog) / int_338176d3	type	Planetary Relocation
What If? (Blog) / int_338176d3	comment	Planetary Relocation: In "Stop Jupiter", Randall largely dismisses the possibility of significantly altering Jupiter's (or any other planet's) orbit by using it for Spaceship Slingshot Stunts, noting that Jupiter was only affected by 10^-21 meters per second when New Horizons did it on its way to Pluto: Jupiter is so huge it would hardly notice if we threw Earth's entire crust at it. He compares it to trying to stop a moving tractor trailer with a thrown tennis ball: "...you need an awfully big tennis ball."
What If? (Blog) / int_338176d3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_338176d3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_338176d3
What If? (Blog) / int_339e22e7	type	Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds
What If? (Blog) / int_339e22e7	comment	Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: In "Mariana Trench Explosion", Randall's cat jumps on the keyboard and adds six zeroes to the bomb's megaton yield, creating an explosion comparable to the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, which then does the same to humanity.
What If? (Blog) / int_339e22e7	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_339e22e7	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_339e22e7
What If? (Blog) / int_38119dcf	type	Not the Fall That Kills You
What If? (Blog) / int_38119dcf	comment	Not the Fall That Kills Youâ€¦: In "Falling With Helium", Randall quotes a medical paper to this effect.
What If? (Blog) / int_38119dcf	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_38119dcf	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_38119dcf
What If? (Blog) / int_39b8d3d6	type	Boring, but Practical
What If? (Blog) / int_39b8d3d6	comment	Boring, but Practical: "Snow Removal" shows that it's a lot better to just shovel away snow rather than use either a flamethrower or a microwave.
What If? (Blog) / int_39b8d3d6	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_39b8d3d6	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_39b8d3d6
What If? (Blog) / int_3d038b36	type	Rhetorical Question Blunder
What If? (Blog) / int_3d038b36	comment	Rhetorical Question Blunder: Randall does this to himself in Saliva Pool:
What If? (Blog) / int_3d038b36	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_3d038b36	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_3d038b36
What If? (Blog) / int_3d2c6d30	type	Skewed Priorities
What If? (Blog) / int_3d2c6d30	comment	Skewed Priorities: In "All the Money": "There are ways to avoid this. You could, say, build a wall around the coins to contain them. Unfortunately, then you might face a problem worse than death: building code violations. "Niagara Straw" is more concerned with the committees one would anger by funneling Niagara Falls through a straw than the fact that you'd destroy the planet if you did. In "Transatlantic Car Rental" (where an audience asks Randall how many rental cars would it take to build a land bridge across the Atlantic), Randall opens by stating that doing so would be a violation of the car rental's agreement. Also, the ocean currents will be disrupted, causing severe climate change, although that is not necessary a violation of the rental's agreement.
What If? (Blog) / int_3d2c6d30	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_3d2c6d30	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_3d2c6d30
What If? (Blog) / int_3ed23024	type	Surprisingly Realistic Outcome
What If? (Blog) / int_3ed23024	comment	Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A segment asked if you swam in a spent fuel pool of a nuclear facility, how deep would you have to dive to suffer fatal radiation poisoning? After the physics filled conjecture suggesting that you'd be pretty safe as long as you stayed away from the casks, Randall then asks a real life friend who works at a research reactor what would happen if he tried to swim in their pool.
What If? (Blog) / int_3ed23024	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_3ed23024	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_3ed23024
What If? (Blog) / int_3eee0728	type	Captain Obvious
What If? (Blog) / int_3eee0728	comment	Captain Obvious: "Faucet Power" has a little tangent to discuss the "eight glasses of water per day" advice and that there doesn't actually seem to be much scientific evidence as to precisely how much water people need to drink — the best answer Randall has found is literally just "if you're thirsty, you should drink some water".
What If? (Blog) / int_3eee0728	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_3eee0728	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_3eee0728
What If? (Blog) / int_42cc824b	type	Constrained Writing
What If? (Blog) / int_42cc824b	comment	Constrained Writing: After being asked what the most inconvenient word to type on an old cellphone would be (tied between "nonmonogamous" and "nonmonotonic", both having seven consecutive letters typed with the "6" key), Randall has some fun with sentences that can only be typed with the left or the right hand (on a standard QWERTY keyboard). He also puts together some sentences that can be typed using only the home row or the top row. He comes up with some very rare sentences (which are also hilarious).
What If? (Blog) / int_42cc824b	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_42cc824b	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_42cc824b
What If? (Blog) / int_48ab4d58	type	The Short War
What If? (Blog) / int_48ab4d58	comment	The Short War: "WWII Films" tries to determine which war has the greatest length of movies about war:length of actual war ratio, and naturally brings up a bunch of there. None of these quite manage to beat the ratio of World War II, but there are some that he thinks might, though he can't find confirmation. As of 2015, there is one film about the Anglo-Zanzibar war listed on IMDB, which is roughly 79% the length of that war, meaning that war probably has the highest movie:war length ratio of any war.
What If? (Blog) / int_48ab4d58	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_48ab4d58	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_48ab4d58
What If? (Blog) / int_4cb90f31	type	Three Laws-Compliant
What If? (Blog) / int_4cb90f31	comment	Three Laws-Compliant: Parodied by mashing them up with Three Laws of Thermodynamics in "Fire From Moonlight".
What If? (Blog) / int_4cb90f31	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_4cb90f31	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_4cb90f31
What If? (Blog) / int_4e790301	type	Whale Egg
What If? (Blog) / int_4e790301	comment	Whale Egg: The deer eggs in "Phone Keypad".
What If? (Blog) / int_4e790301	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_4e790301	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_4e790301
What If? (Blog) / int_507ac08d	type	Blunt "No"
What If? (Blog) / int_507ac08d	comment	Blunt "No": From "Train Loop": Then he turns it into a Zig-Zagging Trope by Moving the Goalposts until the answer is less definite. "Stirring Tea" has another Blunt No. And again in "Pyramid Energy": In the book, one of the "Weird (and Worrying) Questions" sections has someone ask if it's possible to create a tornado by spinning a hammer, like Thor does in the movie. Randall doesn't even bother elaborating on the "NO". Even better, Cueball is just standing there facepalming while a woman stands nearby spinning a hammer like an idiot. He has a similar answer to the question of whether you could stop a volcanic eruption by dropping a really big bomb in it as it happens. An erupting volcano is depicted spewing ash into the sky to form the word "NO" — with more ash than usual because someone dropped a bomb in it. Later subverted; when the question of whether fire tornadoes exist is submitted, Randall's answer is a Blunt "Yes". Then a brief aside noting that this fact is awesome.
What If? (Blog) / int_507ac08d	featureApplicability	-0.3
What If? (Blog) / int_507ac08d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_507ac08d
What If? (Blog) / int_50b05d30	type	Disproportionate Retribution
What If? (Blog) / int_50b05d30	comment	Disproportionate Retribution: "(U)sing nuclear strikes in response to traffic violations is probably overkill."
What If? (Blog) / int_50b05d30	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_50b05d30	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_50b05d30
What If? (Blog) / int_50f66629	type	Crazy-Prepared
What If? (Blog) / int_50f66629	comment	Crazy-Prepared: "Would a Submarine work as a Spaceship?": Randall says that if you were on a nuclear submarine as it reentered Earth's atmosphere, you could survive if you tucked yourself into the right part of the submarine, had a fastly-secured acceleration couch, and a parachute to jump out with. Cueball questions what kind of submarine would have an acceleration couch and a parachute.
What If? (Blog) / int_50f66629	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_50f66629	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_50f66629
What If? (Blog) / int_51bd2865	type	Currency Conspiracy
What If? (Blog) / int_51bd2865	comment	Currency Conspiracy: In "All the Money", it's implied that all US currency is all under the control of an Eldritch Abomination that resembles the Eye of Providence, this being the reason why the symbol is on the $1 bill.
What If? (Blog) / int_51bd2865	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_51bd2865	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_51bd2865
What If? (Blog) / int_537b29d1	type	Acquainted with Emergency Services
What If? (Blog) / int_537b29d1	comment	Acquainted with Emergency Services: One of the "Weird and Worrying Questions" from someone named Brittany is how many cats it would take to bring down an airliner by meowing at the right frequency. The illustration is Randall calling the FAA.
What If? (Blog) / int_537b29d1	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_537b29d1	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_537b29d1
What If? (Blog) / int_54367e5d	type	Mathematician's Answer
What If? (Blog) / int_54367e5d	comment	Mathematician's Answer: Many segments, at least before attending to the spirit of the question asked, begin their answer with something to the effect of "No, because the conditions you're putting the subject through would destroy it long before anything exciting happened." "Relativistic Baseball" answers the question "What would happen if a baseball were to be thrown at 90% the speed of light" by explaining how the resulting explosion would vaporize the batter, pitcher, and entire stadium...and then finished by saying the ruling on the field would be "hit by pitch".
What If? (Blog) / int_54367e5d	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_54367e5d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_54367e5d
What If? (Blog) / int_548bd053	type	Guns Akimbo
What If? (Blog) / int_548bd053	comment	Guns Akimbo: Invoked in "BB Gun".
What If? (Blog) / int_548bd053	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_548bd053	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_548bd053
What If? (Blog) / int_5b3e927f	type	All-Natural Snake Oil
What If? (Blog) / int_5b3e927f	comment	All-Natural Snake Oil: "Europa Water Siphon" discusses the idea of siphoning water from Europa and selling it as bottled water. Randall mentions that although there's no point in this, since water from Europa is chemically the same as water in Earth, the plan could work with the right marketing.
What If? (Blog) / int_5b3e927f	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_5b3e927f	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_5b3e927f
What If? (Blog) / int_5c389eaf	type	The Air Not There
What If? (Blog) / int_5c389eaf	comment	The Air Not There: Averted; the presence of air is accounted for when imagining how each scenario would turn out. "Relativistic Baseball". The ball, moving at 90% the speed of light, would never even reach the batter, because the ball will undergo nuclear fusion with the air molecules in the atmosphere. The result would be similar to a thermonuclear bomb exploding. "Glass Half Empty". There are three glasses, the original water and air one, and two with vacuum and water. If the top half is vacuum, not much would happen other than a loud sound caused by air rushing in into the vacuum. If it were the bottom half, the results would be much more dramatic. Later installments that involve something magically disappearing (like in "Vanishing Water") assume that the space left is replaced with air, to avoid a "glass half empty" scenario.
What If? (Blog) / int_5c389eaf	featureApplicability	-1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_5c389eaf	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_5c389eaf
What If? (Blog) / int_61c0e60d	type	Star Killing
What If? (Blog) / int_61c0e60d	comment	Star Killing: Joked about in one of the "Weird (and Worrying) Questions" sections, where the questioner asked whether it would be possible to build a new star.
What If? (Blog) / int_61c0e60d	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_61c0e60d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_61c0e60d
What If? (Blog) / int_6293c185	type	Sequel Hook
What If? (Blog) / int_6293c185	comment	Sequel Hook: From "Free Fall", Randall decides that people jumping off a cliff land in a pit of cotton candy, then wonders in a parenthetical if that would work.
What If? (Blog) / int_6293c185	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6293c185	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6293c185
What If? (Blog) / int_633114a4	type	Grub Tub
What If? (Blog) / int_633114a4	comment	Grub Tub For Free Fall, Randall assumes that there's a pit at the bottom of the cliff filled with something to safely break one's fall, like cotton candy. In Lake Tea, Alex asks how strong would a tea made from dumping all the world's tea into the Great Lakes be. "Weak, bordering on homeopathic.", answers Randall. He concludes, however, that by dumping 2700 tons of tea into Frying Pan Lake when it's particularly hot, one could brew a year's worth of tea in minutes.
What If? (Blog) / int_633114a4	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_633114a4	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_633114a4
What If? (Blog) / int_65244998	type	Lightning Can Do Anything
What If? (Blog) / int_65244998	comment	Lightning Can Do Anything: Apparently a computer that is flashing the BIOS will install Microsoft Bob Gateway 2000 edition if hit by lightning.
What If? (Blog) / int_65244998	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_65244998	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_65244998
What If? (Blog) / int_65cbb040	type	Pinball Scoring
What If? (Blog) / int_65cbb040	comment	Pinball Scoring: The $2 Undecillion Lawsuit.note 210^36; that is sextillion on a long scale Sun's weight in platinum isn't worth that much.*
What If? (Blog) / int_65cbb040	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_65cbb040	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_65cbb040
What If? (Blog) / int_65df51a8	type	That Poor Cat
What If? (Blog) / int_65df51a8	comment	That Poor Cat: In "Would a Submarine Work as a Spaceship?", a nuclear submarine explodes in orbit upon reentry to Earth. The pieces crash-land into Earth with various assorted smashing noises... and one "meow" of a frightened cat.
What If? (Blog) / int_65df51a8	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_65df51a8	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_65df51a8
What If? (Blog) / int_6aab3ca0	type	Shockingly Expensive Bill
What If? (Blog) / int_6aab3ca0	comment	Shockingly Expensive Bill: You get this if you switch on an 11-petawatt hairdryer. Or run enough energy through a cell phone transmitter to vaporize a snowflake in an attempt to levitate it.
What If? (Blog) / int_6aab3ca0	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6aab3ca0	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6aab3ca0
What If? (Blog) / int_6ada388a	type	Russian Guy Suffers Most
What If? (Blog) / int_6ada388a	comment	Russian Guy Suffers Most: Mentioned when imagining the consequences of Earth's axis being moved 90 degrees:
What If? (Blog) / int_6ada388a	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6ada388a	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6ada388a
What If? (Blog) / int_6bfc52a3	type	A Wizard Did It
What If? (Blog) / int_6bfc52a3	comment	A Wizard Did It: Used constantly, which seems a little unusual for a series that is all about Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, but it's justified as so much of the series is about things that really can't actually happen in the first place, so "magic" is used to set up the scenario the question requires (for example, magically accelerating the baseball in Relativistic Baseball, or a magically expanding and contracting firepole in Earth-Moon Fire Pole), and after that the situation plays out completely realistically.
What If? (Blog) / int_6bfc52a3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6bfc52a3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6bfc52a3
What If? (Blog) / int_6c1864a9	type	I Fell for Hours
What If? (Blog) / int_6c1864a9	comment	I Fell for Hours: Averted. As demonstrated in "Free Fall" jumping off the tallest sheer cliff in the world would only result in 26 seconds of air time.
What If? (Blog) / int_6c1864a9	featureApplicability	-1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6c1864a9	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6c1864a9
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0966ad	type	Real Joke Name
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0966ad	comment	Real Joke Name: Randall considers Zzyzx to be this.
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0966ad	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0966ad	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6f0966ad
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0f1f2c	type	Parallel Parking
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0f1f2c	comment	Parallel Parking: Parodied; in "Transatlantic Car Rental", an image of hundreds of cars stacked on top of each other while sinking into the ocean is given the Alt Text of "Parallel parking".
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0f1f2c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6f0f1f2c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6f0f1f2c
What If? (Blog) / int_6f465fea	type	The Triple
What If? (Blog) / int_6f465fea	comment	The Triple: The first image of "Free Fall" labels the parts of Mount Thor with "East Slope", "Summit", and "AAAAAAAAAAAAA" (pointing at the sheer cliff).
What If? (Blog) / int_6f465fea	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6f465fea	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6f465fea
What If? (Blog) / int_6fc21d06	type	Fiction 500
What If? (Blog) / int_6fc21d06	comment	Fiction 500: "All The Money" imagines a scenario where you had all the money in the world.
What If? (Blog) / int_6fc21d06	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6fc21d06	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6fc21d06
What If? (Blog) / int_6fe9787f	type	20% More Awesome
What If? (Blog) / int_6fe9787f	comment	20% More Awesome: The first image of "Great Tree, Great Axe", where all the seas in the world are gathered into one.
What If? (Blog) / int_6fe9787f	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_6fe9787f	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_6fe9787f
What If? (Blog) / int_71e514b5	type	Don't Try This at Home
What If? (Blog) / int_71e514b5	comment	Don't Try This at Home: Several times. Among the more amusing examples: A serious, non-ironic one #81 which discusses firing a bullet in the air and attempting to catch it at its highest point. Specifically, don't try to fire a gun into the air at all — people do this at celebrations in some countries and the falling bullets cause hundreds of injuries and deaths every year. In the book, the illustration of someone spraying water at a bullet with the density of a neutron star (on an indestructible plinth, on an indestructible platform, to stop it sinking to the centre of the earth) to create a relatively dense envelope that would make it almost safe to touch has the caption "Do try this at home, and send me the video". When someone asks "what's the worst thing" that can happen in a pressure cooker, Randall's answer begins with "Note: Never try this, for reasons which will become obvious in a moment."note Because the answer is "dioxygen difluoride" — a chemical so volatile it can make ice catch fire! And don't even think about mixing it with hydrogen sulfide... Luckily, the procedure described is plainly impossible to replicate with kitchen equipment. "Periodic Wall of the Elements" explains what would happen if you built a physical periodic table out of blocks of each element — in other words, Randall describes the many ways it would kill you. He then has this to say about astatine, one of the highly radioactive elements in the sixth row:
What If? (Blog) / int_71e514b5	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_71e514b5	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_71e514b5
What If? (Blog) / int_723e61b3	type	Baby Planet
What If? (Blog) / int_723e61b3	comment	Baby Planet: Discussed in "Little Planet".
What If? (Blog) / int_723e61b3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_723e61b3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_723e61b3
What If? (Blog) / int_72757e0d	type	"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer
What If? (Blog) / int_72757e0d	comment	"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: In "The Constant Groundskeeper", while discussing lawn-cutting speeds: There's also this description of the lowest elevation to Death Valley.
What If? (Blog) / int_72757e0d	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_72757e0d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_72757e0d
What If? (Blog) / int_72856b70	type	Godzilla Threshold
What If? (Blog) / int_72856b70	comment	Godzilla Threshold: Randall points out in "Cannibalism" that eating people who ate people would be a good way to transmit prion diseases, but they would take a long time to take effect, so your bigger concern would be that you have a 50% chance of getting eaten every month!
What If? (Blog) / int_72856b70	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_72856b70	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_72856b70
What If? (Blog) / int_7301e3f0	type	Outlandish Device Setting
What If? (Blog) / int_7301e3f0	comment	Outlandish Device Setting: features the "Hair Dryer" thought experiment. An ordinary 1875-watt hair dryer is sealed inside an indestructible metal box and turned on. Every paragraph, a new power setting is taped onto the dial, increasing the power by an order of magnitude. At its second-highest setting of 187 terawattsnote 1015 watts, the hair dryer is putting out energy comparable to three nuclear explosions every second. After turning the dryer down to 0 and dumping it into a lake to cool it down, the 187-terawatt setting is taped over with 11 petawattsnote 1016 watts. This boils the entire lake into plasma and launches the box and hairdryer into space.
What If? (Blog) / int_7301e3f0	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_7301e3f0	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_7301e3f0
What If? (Blog) / int_756dbd0b	type	Hard on Soft Science
What If? (Blog) / int_756dbd0b	comment	Hard on Soft Science: The first image of "All the Money", after Randall handwaves away how you got all the money in the world by saying A Wizard Did It. The image is of Rob and Megan, with Rob having drawn a pentacle on the floor.
What If? (Blog) / int_756dbd0b	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_756dbd0b	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_756dbd0b
What If? (Blog) / int_76c0e85d	type	High-Voltage Death
What If? (Blog) / int_76c0e85d	comment	High-Voltage Death: In "Electrofishing for Whales", it's noted that larger animals like humans or whales can die from electricity that smaller fish would be either unharmed by or be injured by but survive.
What If? (Blog) / int_76c0e85d	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_76c0e85d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_76c0e85d
What If? (Blog) / int_76e48a97	type	Icarus Allusion
What If? (Blog) / int_76e48a97	comment	Icarus Allusion: "Interplanetary Cessna" talks about how the concept could work on Titan (Saturn's sixth moon, not the mythical giants), and worries about the wings freezing and falling apart. Randall figures engineering could solve the freezing issue, and that the real moral of the Icarus tale was not of the limits of humanity, but of the limits of wax as an adhesive. "Into the Sun" claims that Icarus's problem wasn't flying too close to the sun, it was staying near the sun for too long.
What If? (Blog) / int_76e48a97	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_76e48a97	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_76e48a97
What If? (Blog) / int_791ef98c	type	Everything Makes a Mushroom
What If? (Blog) / int_791ef98c	comment	Everything Makes a Mushroom: The Relativistic Baseball produced one. As does all the pollen in the world being lit on fire.
What If? (Blog) / int_791ef98c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_791ef98c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_791ef98c
What If? (Blog) / int_7962aeec	type	Relax-o-Vision
What If? (Blog) / int_7962aeec	comment	Relax-o-Vision: "Blood Alcohol" featured drawings of squirrels instead of people coughing up blood. "Once again, we've reached a scenario I really don't want to illustrate. Here's another squirrel. note I'm gonna look for less morbid questions for a while
What If? (Blog) / int_7962aeec	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_7962aeec	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_7962aeec
What If? (Blog) / int_79ba6777	type	Pocket Protector
What If? (Blog) / int_79ba6777	comment	Pocket Protector: The back cover of the book version warns that it will not stop a bullet, and anyone wanting to use it as armour should buy a lot more copies.
What If? (Blog) / int_79ba6777	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_79ba6777	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_79ba6777
What If? (Blog) / int_7c61a2d4	type	ShmuckBait
What If? (Blog) / int_7c61a2d4	comment	Shmuck Bait: One of the images for Spent Fuel Pool", which is about which parts of a storage pool for nuclear waste would actually be safe to swim in, has as Alt Text, "Disclaimer: I am a cartoonist, if you follow my advice on safety around nuclear materials you probably deserve whatever happens to you."
What If? (Blog) / int_7c61a2d4	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_7c61a2d4	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_7c61a2d4
What If? (Blog) / int_7c7589af	type	Earth-Shattering Kaboom
What If? (Blog) / int_7c7589af	comment	Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Several of the scenarios put forth end up in the destruction of the Earth, or at least the extinction of all life.
What If? (Blog) / int_7c7589af	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_7c7589af	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_7c7589af
What If? (Blog) / int_7dd334b	type	Faux Computer Code
What If? (Blog) / int_7dd334b	comment	When trying to fill the most expensive shoebox, Randall notes that it's difficult to get a handle on the value of diamonds because "<s>the entire industry was built on a scam</s> the gemstone market is complicated".
What If? (Blog) / int_7dd334b	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_7dd334b	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_7dd334b
What If? (Blog) / int_7df2b942	type	Moving the Goalposts
What If? (Blog) / int_7df2b942	comment	Moving the Goalposts: Done in "Train Loop" to allow for an interesting answer (as in, other than "no"). "Could a high-speed train run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers staying comfortable?" becomes (changes bolded) "Could a modified and reinforced high-speed train with a jet engine on top run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers surviving?" Also done in "Digging Downward", where the concerns of heat, pressure, and digging process are ignored one by one until the question "has left the realm of physics and become fantasy", and the digger is eventually eaten by a balrog.
What If? (Blog) / int_7df2b942	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_7df2b942	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_7df2b942
What If? (Blog) / int_808cbaeb	type	Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
What If? (Blog) / int_808cbaeb	comment	Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The universe in Alternate Universe What Ifs, is a truely ghastly place where people swallow one spider each second on average, blood covers much of the world, London was destroyed, unescapable harvester robots prowl and cows are oblate spheroids.
What If? (Blog) / int_808cbaeb	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_808cbaeb	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_808cbaeb
What If? (Blog) / int_816a4e80	type	Star Wars (Franchise)
What If? (Blog) / int_816a4e80	comment	"...switching to Yoda Power probably isnâ€™t worth the trouble—though it would definitely be green."
What If? (Blog) / int_816a4e80	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_816a4e80	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_816a4e80
What If? (Blog) / int_83445b04	type	Pun
What If? (Blog) / int_83445b04	comment	Pun: "...switching to Yoda Power probably isnâ€™t worth the trouble—though it would definitely be green." (in Alt Text) "What do I have against [the rover] Curiosity? Well, I'm working for the Cat." In "Raindrop", examining the effects of a storm releasing all its water on one drop, "Fear reigns supreme as the world fears rain supreme". The final few sentences describe scientists attempting to figure out how the one-drop disaster occurred:
What If? (Blog) / int_83445b04	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_83445b04	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_83445b04
What If? (Blog) / int_85ad623	type	Worrying for the Wrong Reason
What If? (Blog) / int_85ad623	comment	Worrying for the Wrong Reason: In "500 MPH":
What If? (Blog) / int_85ad623	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_85ad623	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_85ad623
What If? (Blog) / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
What If? (Blog) / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: Averted, if you know where to look. The cover shows a Tyrannosaurus rex being suspended over Scarlacc Pit. The resolution of that is on the back cover, under the book jacket.
What If? (Blog) / int_863fa679	featureApplicability	-1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_863fa679	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_863fa679
What If? (Blog) / int_874c712f	type	Dug Too Deep
What If? (Blog) / int_874c712f	comment	Dug Too Deep: "Digging Downward" — "What would happen if I dug straight down, at a speed of 1 foot per second? What would kill me first?" Randall concludes that if you're assumed to be protected from the many things that could kill you, then the question becomes unanswerable scientifically, because by this point the scenario is pure fantasy. Which he notes, makes the answer obvious — a Balrog.
What If? (Blog) / int_874c712f	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_874c712f	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_874c712f
What If? (Blog) / int_875615dd	type	Truth in Television
What If? (Blog) / int_875615dd	comment	There's also Truth in Television example discussed in "Flood Death Valley", where a mistake in irrigation of the Colorado River led to a flood inadvertantly turning the Salton Basin into the Salton Sea, which quickly became a Polluted Wasteland.
What If? (Blog) / int_875615dd	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_875615dd	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_875615dd
What If? (Blog) / int_8797239c	type	Bait-and-Switch
What If? (Blog) / int_8797239c	comment	Bait-and-Switch: In "Bouncy Balls", after noting that a bucket of 3,000 one-inch bouncy balls weighs about as much as a small child, we see a "thought experiment" of a kid being thrown at the hapless test subject, as if the intent is to see the result of the impact of the child and the test subject. Black Hat is, unsurprisingly, the thrower. The test subject catches the child and admonishes the guy throwing the kid. Black Hat then chucks yet another one-inch ball at the test subject.
What If? (Blog) / int_8797239c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8797239c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8797239c
What If? (Blog) / int_8aa0f76	type	Deconstructed Trope
What If? (Blog) / int_8aa0f76	comment	Deconstructed Trope: A lot of the entries do this, carrying an apparently simple question to its most extreme Surprisingly Realistic Outcome-style logical conclusion, mostly involving Apocalypse How. An example is "Everybody Jump", a question that's been answered by multiple other places including a ScienceBlogs post. However, while Randall comes to the same conclusion for the basic question ("not a damn thing happens"), he then proceeds to tear into it and prove that it would result in a Planetary/Societal Disruption-grade Apocalypse How because nobody would be able to get home, or eat, and civilization would collapse.
What If? (Blog) / int_8aa0f76	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8aa0f76	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8aa0f76
What If? (Blog) / int_8ad43dc9	type	Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
What If? (Blog) / int_8ad43dc9	comment	Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Invoked in "BB Gun" (Alt Text of second image).
What If? (Blog) / int_8ad43dc9	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8ad43dc9	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8ad43dc9
What If? (Blog) / int_8b606a51	type	There Is No Kill Like Overkill
What If? (Blog) / int_8b606a51	comment	There Is No Kill Like Overkill: "What if we tried more power/higher/faster?" is Randall's go-to answer whenever overkill is not achieved. In the Diamond scenario, it ends with the meteor being fired with the speed of the Oh-My-God Particle (that is, very, very close to the speed of light) and the resulting impact destroys the Earth. In "Sunbeam", the entirety of the Sun's power is collected, then fired at earth in the form of a 1m-wide beam. How destructive is such a beam? Well, in Randall's words: In Proton Earth, Electron Moon, Randall warns beforehands that this scenario is the most destructive yet, even compared to the former Earth-Shattering or Earth-Scorching ones. Indeed, it ends with the destruction of the entire Universe.
What If? (Blog) / int_8b606a51	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8b606a51	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8b606a51
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf025dc	type	Ludicrous Speed
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf025dc	comment	Ludicrous Speed: Watch Cueball throw a baseball at relativistic speeds. Watch the entire city be destroyed in a nuclear-level explosion.
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf025dc	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf025dc	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8bf025dc
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf8adfa	type	Just Before the End
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf8adfa	comment	Just Before the End: "Expanding Earth" is yet another Apocalypse How situation, but it takes a century to actually kill everyone.
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf8adfa	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8bf8adfa	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8bf8adfa
What If? (Blog) / int_8c49c29e	type	Zig-Zagging Trope
What If? (Blog) / int_8c49c29e	comment	Then he turns it into a Zig-Zagging Trope by Moving the Goalposts until the answer is less definite.
What If? (Blog) / int_8c49c29e	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8c49c29e	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8c49c29e
What If? (Blog) / int_8cf6aa	type	Literal Metaphor
What If? (Blog) / int_8cf6aa	comment	Literal Metaphor: While explaining why you can't set fire to something with a magnifying glass and moonlight in "Fire From Moonlight", Randall remarks the reason involving "a rabbit hole of optics". Cue image of a literal rabbit hole with a bunch of lenses in it.
What If? (Blog) / int_8cf6aa	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8cf6aa	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8cf6aa
What If? (Blog) / int_8d0785d5	type	Didn't Think This Through
What If? (Blog) / int_8d0785d5	comment	Didn't Think This Through: In "All the Money", he notes that if you suddenly had the entire world's money supply, you couldn't actually spend it, because everyone would be pissed off at you for stealing all their money.
What If? (Blog) / int_8d0785d5	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_8d0785d5	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_8d0785d5
What If? (Blog) / int_91495e52	type	Heads or Tails?
What If? (Blog) / int_91495e52	comment	Heads or Tails?: In the question about humans surviving on cannibalism, flipping a coin to determine who eats whom.
What If? (Blog) / int_91495e52	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_91495e52	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_91495e52
What If? (Blog) / int_91cab736	type	Major Injury Underreaction
What If? (Blog) / int_91cab736	comment	Major Injury Underreaction: "Dang." In response to having one's arms torn off as a result of grabbing a flagpole while falling from a building. The narrator gets in on this in "Relativistic Baseball." After describing how the speed of the baseball would cause it to fuse with the atoms in the air, resulting in hitting the batter with a shell of x-rays and superheated plasma while triggering a nuclear explosion, the narration concludes with "A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered 'hit by pitch', and would be eligible to advance to first base."
What If? (Blog) / int_91cab736	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_91cab736	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_91cab736
What If? (Blog) / int_91e894b4	type	Apocalypse How
What If? (Blog) / int_91e894b4	comment	Apocalypse How: That's how the articles often tend to end. Scope and severity vary. Lampshaded in "Vanishing Water": Subverted with "Richter 15" from the book, where he explores what events would generate a negative reading on the Richter scale, because "sometimes it's nice not to the destroy the world for a change." From the book, the result of making the periodic table out of 1-liter blocks of each element would result in a Class 1/Class 2, as the transuranic elements would decay and produce a massive continuous nuclear blast, obliterating whatever city the table was in and spreading radioactive material all over the world. "Everybody Jump" provides an example of a Class-2: everyone getting moved to the Rhode Island area to jump would cause massive societal disruption. Not because it would physically destroy civilization (Randall notes that the worst that would happen to structures and such would be some ruined flowerbeds), but because many people do not live on Rhode Island, and therefore everyone suddenly being there would cause a lot of logistical issues that would cause widespread collapse among the human race (such as food/water unavailability, poor communication among the many that do not share languages, and airports being unable to reliably distribute everyone to their homes). When "Proton Earth, Electron Moon" is said to result in, by far, the most destructive What-If scenario to date, long-time readers know they're in for something special. The final result of said scenario is a black hole with mass equal to the entire known universe.
What If? (Blog) / int_91e894b4	featureApplicability	-0.3
What If? (Blog) / int_91e894b4	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_91e894b4
What If? (Blog) / int_930e1bd4	type	Absurdly High-Stakes Game
What If? (Blog) / int_930e1bd4	comment	Absurdly High-Stakes Game: In "Cannibalism", discussing how it would be determined who eats whom, he suggests flipping coins and making it into "the tournament bracket to end all tournament brackets."
What If? (Blog) / int_930e1bd4	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_930e1bd4	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_930e1bd4
What If? (Blog) / int_943f7a7e	type	Wiki Walk
What If? (Blog) / int_943f7a7e	comment	Wiki Walk: In "WWII Films", Randall tells us about IMDb tags.
What If? (Blog) / int_943f7a7e	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_943f7a7e	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_943f7a7e
What If? (Blog) / int_958a7bef	type	Layman's Terms
What If? (Blog) / int_958a7bef	comment	Layman's Terms: Used as a Running Gag in "Flood Death Valley".
What If? (Blog) / int_958a7bef	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_958a7bef	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_958a7bef
What If? (Blog) / int_95dec9d2	type	Plant Aliens
What If? (Blog) / int_95dec9d2	comment	Plant Aliens: The photosynthetic cows in "Green Cows."
What If? (Blog) / int_95dec9d2	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_95dec9d2	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_95dec9d2
What If? (Blog) / int_98995a37	type	Ridiculous Future Sequelisation
What If? (Blog) / int_98995a37	comment	Ridiculous Future Sequelisation: "Twitter Timeline Height" considered the prospect of twenty-six The Land Before Time sequels.
What If? (Blog) / int_98995a37	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_98995a37	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_98995a37
What If? (Blog) / int_98a63dc6	type	Time Abyss
What If? (Blog) / int_98a63dc6	comment	Time Abyss: "Twitter" deals with some truly mind-bogglingly large lengths of time.
What If? (Blog) / int_98a63dc6	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_98a63dc6	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_98a63dc6
What If? (Blog) / int_9c4003a1	type	One True Love
What If? (Blog) / int_9c4003a1	comment	One True Love: Deconstructed in "Soul Mates"; a world where everybody could only be happy with one other person would be much lonelier than ours.
What If? (Blog) / int_9c4003a1	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_9c4003a1	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_9c4003a1
What If? (Blog) / int_9c495599	type	Hide Your Children
What If? (Blog) / int_9c495599	comment	Hide Your Children: In the question asking "What if everyone in the world gathered in one place and jumped at the same time?" He assumes all 7 billion people in the world were magically transported to Rhode Island and all jumped (affecting nothing) and wonder why we did that and then tried to make their way home. It conveniently and understandably ignores all the children who would be present but possibly be far from their parents and caregivers (hopefully families were transported together) and millions of babies and disabled people who can't jump.
What If? (Blog) / int_9c495599	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_9c495599	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_9c495599
What If? (Blog) / int_9f85b457	type	What Are Records?
What If? (Blog) / int_9f85b457	comment	What Are Records?: Footnote 6 in "Far-Traveling Objects" alludes to a future incarnation of this trope.
What If? (Blog) / int_9f85b457	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_9f85b457	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_9f85b457
What If? (Blog) / int_a188ac4b	type	Overly Long Gag
What If? (Blog) / int_a188ac4b	comment	Overly Long Gag: Unit cancellation is weird. In the "Interplanetary Cessna" entry, every one of the 32 result diagrams had an alt text describing the pilot's reactions. Sadly, Randall has removed the image map making alt text for different parts of the image possible (presumably for technical reasons), causing them to be lost; thus, for the sake of posterity, we present all 32 of them here: All the different things that don't count as sunsets. The first image for "Free Fall" labels the sheer cliff on the side of Mount Thor with "AAAAAAAAAAAAA". The Alt Text for the image?
What If? (Blog) / int_a188ac4b	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a188ac4b	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a188ac4b
What If? (Blog) / int_a33efe7c	type	Recoil Boost
What If? (Blog) / int_a33efe7c	comment	Recoil Boost: "Machine Gun Jetpack" asks: how much gun do you need to launch yourself into the air? It turns out that an AK47 has a higher thrust-to-weight ratio than the Saturn V rocket, though bringing more than 250 rounds of ammunition would not work well, that putting a GAU-8 Avenger (the tank-killing Gatling gun on an A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack plane) on top of a car would let you break the interstate speed limit in three seconds, and that a Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30 could jump mountains if set up properly.
What If? (Blog) / int_a33efe7c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a33efe7c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a33efe7c
What If? (Blog) / int_a38088cf	type	Space Is Cold
What If? (Blog) / int_a38088cf	comment	Space Is Cold: Inverted in one chapter of the book (also explored in the YouTube version) where Randall says that space is cold... but, space is actually warm for the purposes of putting a nuclear submarine in space, since the submarine generates a lot of its heat, and it's surrounded by a vacuum which isn't good at absorbing that heat; as a result, the submarine would get hot enough to be like a sauna, then have a reactor meltdown.
What If? (Blog) / int_a38088cf	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a38088cf	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a38088cf
What If? (Blog) / int_a4916876	type	Blown Across the Room
What If? (Blog) / int_a4916876	comment	Blown Across the Room: Discussed as part of a list of movie tropes that couldn't happen in real life.
What If? (Blog) / int_a4916876	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a4916876	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a4916876
What If? (Blog) / int_a6cda066	type	Rule of Three
What If? (Blog) / int_a6cda066	comment	And again in "Pyramid Energy":
What If? (Blog) / int_a6cda066	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a6cda066	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a6cda066
What If? (Blog) / int_a7066c8c	type	Bad News, Irrelevant News
What If? (Blog) / int_a7066c8c	comment	Bad News, Irrelevant News: In "Frozen Rivers": In "Transatlantic Car Rental", the reader asks what would happen if they built a bridge of rental cars across the Atlantic. Randall replies: In "Relativistic Baseball", after discussing how throwing a lightspeed baseball would cause a thermonuclear explosion killing everyone for miles around, Munroe quotes the rules of the game.
What If? (Blog) / int_a7066c8c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a7066c8c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a7066c8c
What If? (Blog) / int_a75f840d	type	Full Moon Silhouette
What If? (Blog) / int_a75f840d	comment	Full Moon Silhouette: "Speed Bump" includes an illustration of a car that lifts off the ground and tumbles helplessly against the Moon. The Alt Text says "BREAKING: Child, Unidentified Creature in Bicycle Basket Hit and Killed by Car".
What If? (Blog) / int_a75f840d	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a75f840d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a75f840d
What If? (Blog) / int_a7ca682e	type	Kitchen Sink Included
What If? (Blog) / int_a7ca682e	comment	Kitchen Sink Included: In "High Throw" Randall mentions a British javelin thrower named Roald Bradstock who held a random object throwing competition, "in which he threw everything from dead fish to an actual kitchen sink".
What If? (Blog) / int_a7ca682e	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_a7ca682e	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_a7ca682e
What If? (Blog) / int_ac320c0e	type	Nuke 'em
What If? (Blog) / int_ac320c0e	comment	From the book, the result of making the periodic table out of 1-liter blocks of each element would result in a Class 1/Class 2, as the transuranic elements would decay and produce a massive continuous nuclear blast, obliterating whatever city the table was in and spreading radioactive material all over the world.
What If? (Blog) / int_ac320c0e	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ac320c0e	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ac320c0e
What If? (Blog) / int_ac546cd4	type	Worth It
What If? (Blog) / int_ac546cd4	comment	Worth It: According to "Extreme Boating", exposure to the inexplicable "third sound" is worth a horrible death in a sea of liquid helium. Literal in the Alt Text. Also worth it: hiring 40 billion planets' worth of lawyers for a thousand generations to get out of a $2 undecillion lawsuit, because the fees would still be less than the suit.
What If? (Blog) / int_ac546cd4	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ac546cd4	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ac546cd4
What If? (Blog) / int_ad54ff39	type	Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure
What If? (Blog) / int_ad54ff39	comment	Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure: The aforementioned "megayodas". In "High Throw" he uses giraffes as a unit of heightnote 1 giraffe = 5 meters. In "Growth Rate" he gives the birth size of the typical baby as a fraction of the diameter of the Death Star's exhaust port (then as a fraction of the length of a womp rat, in the Alt Text of the corresponding image). Multiple Yodas stacked on top of each other are also used. The second footnote of "The Constant Groundskeeper" converts 25,000 square meters into other measurement systems; the last one being "5,300 Shrouds of Turin". Again in "Blood Alcohol", where Randall compares the volume of a beer can (1 pint = 475 mL) with the volumes of a stadium (250 picostadiums) and the Moon (21.5 yoctomoons). Discussed in "All the Lightning" in the book, wherein Munroe remarks on science writers' love of comparing everything to the Hiroshima bomb. Then he mocks it thoroughly in the accompanying footnote (which is transcribed in the trope page's quote page).
What If? (Blog) / int_ad54ff39	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ad54ff39	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ad54ff39
What If? (Blog) / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
What If? (Blog) / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Randall frequently applies his peculiar brand of humor to the entries. For example, from "Short Answer Section II": Another example from "Sunbeam":
What If? (Blog) / int_ae3d6438	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ae3d6438	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ae3d6438
What If? (Blog) / int_b1619b3c	type	Omnicidal Maniac
What If? (Blog) / int_b1619b3c	comment	Omnicidal Maniac: Sam Burke wants to dig a hole deep enough to contain the whole atmosphere and make everyone else suffocate.
What If? (Blog) / int_b1619b3c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b1619b3c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b1619b3c
What If? (Blog) / int_b3bdf232	type	Alien Geometries
What If? (Blog) / int_b3bdf232	comment	Alien Geometries: In one of the notes in Pyramid Energy, "Assume a spherical pyramid in a vacuum". Obviously, it wouldn't then be a pyramid, but that's part of the joke.
What If? (Blog) / int_b3bdf232	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b3bdf232	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b3bdf232
What If? (Blog) / int_b4a6ae4c	type	Everyone Has Standards
What If? (Blog) / int_b4a6ae4c	comment	Everyone Has Standards: As much as Randall seems to enjoy describing potentially apocalyptic scenarios, he sometimes fields questions that are too bizarre, disturbing, or borderline illegal for him to answer.
What If? (Blog) / int_b4a6ae4c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b4a6ae4c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b4a6ae4c
What If? (Blog) / int_b4fe9d97	type	Space Isolation Horror
What If? (Blog) / int_b4fe9d97	comment	Space Isolation Horror: Discussed in "Loneliest Human", about the astronaut's in the Apollo missions
What If? (Blog) / int_b4fe9d97	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b4fe9d97	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b4fe9d97
What If? (Blog) / int_b5049d76	type	Added Alliterative Appeal
What If? (Blog) / int_b5049d76	comment	Added Alliterative Appeal: The Alt Text of the first image in "Three Wise Men".
What If? (Blog) / int_b5049d76	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b5049d76	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b5049d76
What If? (Blog) / int_b53077b3	type	Take That!
What If? (Blog) / int_b53077b3	comment	Take That!: When trying to fill the most expensive shoebox, Randall notes that it's difficult to get a handle on the value of diamonds because "<s>the entire industry was built on a scam</s> the gemstone market is complicated". Randall frequently appends obvious statements with a superscripted "[citation needed]" in a dig at Wikipedia's somewhat spurious notability standards. In "Sunbeam" Randall mentions that if you were standing on Earth's dark side when the eponymous sunbeam is hitting Earth, you would die from twilight (i.e. the radiations and x-rays coming from the horizon). Cue image of the DVD cover of Twilight (2008).
What If? (Blog) / int_b53077b3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b53077b3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b53077b3
What If? (Blog) / int_b58b4e3c	type	Too Dumb to Live
What If? (Blog) / int_b58b4e3c	comment	Too Dumb to Live: A lot of the scenarios only become deadly or apocalyptic if the theoretical person acts extremely stupidly. Close to a Real Life example with "Tungsten countertop" about a French soldier drinking wine out of a rifle barrel for some reason and being poisoned by the tungsten, though he ended up surviving.
What If? (Blog) / int_b58b4e3c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b58b4e3c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b58b4e3c
What If? (Blog) / int_b72938ce	type	Eleventy Zillion
What If? (Blog) / int_b72938ce	comment	Eleventy Zillion: 2 undecillion isn't a made-up number, but it's large enough that if you're trying to sue someone for that much in US dollars, it may as well be, since there's no possible way for them (not even converting the entire Earth's mass to the most expensive thing ever sold) to actually come up with it.
What If? (Blog) / int_b72938ce	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b72938ce	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b72938ce
What If? (Blog) / int_b7bc7d28	type	Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!
What If? (Blog) / int_b7bc7d28	comment	Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: "Frozen Rivers" gives us a minor, if amusing, example. invoked In "Drain the Oceans: Part II", Munroe admits to being a Quicksand Box victim in the alt-text of the eleventh map. Used in "Ink Molecules" to explain why Randall can't remember Avogadro's number. In "Phone Keypad": "sasha has a gf; gf has adhd".
What If? (Blog) / int_b7bc7d28	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b7bc7d28	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b7bc7d28
What If? (Blog) / int_b9561236	type	A Good Name for a Rock Band
What If? (Blog) / int_b9561236	comment	A Good Name for a Rock Band: The Alt Text of the third graph in "Steak Drop" reads: "Tatooine Rainbow" notes that in a double rainbow, the gap between the bright and dim rainbows is called Alexander's dark band. Cue image of a rock band with that name singing a botched version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".
What If? (Blog) / int_b9561236	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_b9561236	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_b9561236
What If? (Blog) / int_ba11178f	type	Moose and Maple Syrup
What If? (Blog) / int_ba11178f	comment	Moose and Maple Syrup: When researching how high up you'd have to be to freeze to death, he finds "The scholarly authorities on freezing to death seem to be, unsurprisingly, Canadians".
What If? (Blog) / int_ba11178f	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ba11178f	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ba11178f
What If? (Blog) / int_bb44f503	type	Robot War
What If? (Blog) / int_bb44f503	comment	Robot War: More or less deconstructed in "Robot Apocalypse": Robots with present technology would pose little threat due to their considerable limitations, with the partial exception of advanced cars. They would be able to cause a nuclear holocaust, but would be unlikely to do so, as the EMPs caused by such an event would destroy them as well.
What If? (Blog) / int_bb44f503	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_bb44f503	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_bb44f503
What If? (Blog) / int_bedd799b	type	Blunt "Yes"
What If? (Blog) / int_bedd799b	comment	Later subverted; when the question of whether fire tornadoes exist is submitted, Randall's answer is a Blunt "Yes". Then a brief aside noting that this fact is awesome.
What If? (Blog) / int_bedd799b	featureApplicability	-0.3
What If? (Blog) / int_bedd799b	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_bedd799b
What If? (Blog) / int_bfb5f597	type	Money Is Not Power
What If? (Blog) / int_bfb5f597	comment	Money Is Not Power: Having all the money in the world won't save you from being killed when the pile of money collapses. Or from building codes.
What If? (Blog) / int_bfb5f597	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_bfb5f597	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_bfb5f597
What If? (Blog) / int_bfdf0edb	type	Screaming at Squick
What If? (Blog) / int_bfdf0edb	comment	Screaming at Squick: Randall's reaction to searching up "star-nosed mole" in A Mole of Moles:
What If? (Blog) / int_bfdf0edb	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_bfdf0edb	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_bfdf0edb
What If? (Blog) / int_c1283c	type	Soda-Candy 'Splosion
What If? (Blog) / int_c1283c	comment	Soda-Candy 'Splosion: The first image of "Comet Ice" has Black Hat Guy offer to plug an overflowing Diet Coke with Mentos. The Alt Text contains a Mythology Gag, stating that "some of the lucky 10,000 are less lucky than others."
What If? (Blog) / int_c1283c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_c1283c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_c1283c
What If? (Blog) / int_c2cedc1c	type	Big "NO!"
What If? (Blog) / int_c2cedc1c	comment	Big "NO!": The pilot in this segment doesn't want to fly a Cessna around different planets and moons in our solar system. The rest of the post makes it clear why it's a potentially awesome and very bad idea.
What If? (Blog) / int_c2cedc1c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_c2cedc1c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_c2cedc1c
What If? (Blog) / int_c3245c20	type	I Lied
What If? (Blog) / int_c3245c20	comment	I Lied: The Hair Dryer article promised to stop when half the space was unused.
What If? (Blog) / int_c3245c20	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_c3245c20	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_c3245c20
What If? (Blog) / int_c5f0119c	type	Insane Troll Logic
What If? (Blog) / int_c5f0119c	comment	Insane Troll Logic: Fermi Estimation can certainly seem like this, but used correctly, it can at least get you in the ballpark of the correct answer.
What If? (Blog) / int_c5f0119c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_c5f0119c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_c5f0119c
What If? (Blog) / int_c9597a03	type	Self-Deprecation
What If? (Blog) / int_c9597a03	comment	Self-Deprecation: From "A Mole of Moles":
What If? (Blog) / int_c9597a03	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_c9597a03	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_c9597a03
What If? (Blog) / int_cd8ca67a	type	DoubleSubverted
What If? (Blog) / int_cd8ca67a	comment	Hilariously Double Subverted in "Snow Removal". Using a flamethrower to melt snow in front of your car is actually more efficient than using a giant microwave emitter. But it's still hilariously inefficient: you'd make about seventeen feet per gallon of fuel.
What If? (Blog) / int_cd8ca67a	featureApplicability	-0.3
What If? (Blog) / int_cd8ca67a	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_cd8ca67a
What If? (Blog) / int_ce104b8e	type	Serial Escalation
What If? (Blog) / int_ce104b8e	comment	Serial Escalation: A recurring theme, frequently after the question is answered as asked, Black Hat Guy comes in and asks some variation of, "What if we did more?" Several times. Any topic that can be pushed to extremes (that isn't already) will be pushed to those extremes and then some. Another excuse for this has been a cat stepping on the keyboard, adding a few dozen extra zeroes to a quantity of TNT detonated in the Marianas Trench. "Dropping a Mountain" shows why this doesn't work in real life. When Denali is lifted and dropped from increasing heights, it is taken to the edge of Earth's gravitational well, the highest point an object could fall from, and hits Alaska at 10 km/s. The Black Hat Guy asks to drop it from even higher, which fails because Earth no longer has enough gravitational force to overcome that of other bodies in the solar system. Randall even hangs a lampshade on it. The second time Black Hat Guy says it, the alt text is "Fine, but put your hat under it, first." Then, near the end: "Cornstarch". The kick key phrase in the question is 'unpleasant things', so the author continues to assume that the person experimenting is having fun (and has an infinite amount of spare time and cornstarch), even after the oobleck blocks the drains, overflows the sink, fills the tester's home, blows out a window, and causes the tester to be dumped out onto the lawn in the resultant flood. But if the tester honestly enjoyed spending several months and several hundred thousand dollars making oobleck and destroying their home until the authorities shut off the water supply, technically no unpleasant things happened.
What If? (Blog) / int_ce104b8e	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ce104b8e	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ce104b8e
What If? (Blog) / int_d148b019	type	Mundane Made Awesome
What If? (Blog) / int_d148b019	comment	Mundane Made Awesome: "Microwaves" starts of with Munroe straight-up telling admitting that you can Google the answer to the question, but since he himself has had this happen so many times, he's going to What-If it.
What If? (Blog) / int_d148b019	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d148b019	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d148b019
What If? (Blog) / int_d264e7d4	type	Bullet Catch
What If? (Blog) / int_d264e7d4	comment	Bullet Catch: "Catch!" explains that this trope might be possible, provided you shoot the bullet upwards so that the bullet stops mid-air, and have a friend catch it there by flying with a hot-air balloon or something.
What If? (Blog) / int_d264e7d4	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d264e7d4	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d264e7d4
What If? (Blog) / int_d3354565	type	Medal of Dishonor
What If? (Blog) / int_d3354565	comment	Medal of Dishonor: Awarded to someone called A.J. for his idea of how Chernobyl could have been prevented.
What If? (Blog) / int_d3354565	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d3354565	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d3354565
What If? (Blog) / int_d34cbda2	type	Implausible Deniability
What If? (Blog) / int_d34cbda2	comment	Implausible Deniability: Laser Umbrella ends with Cueball setting a neighbor's house on fire.
What If? (Blog) / int_d34cbda2	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d34cbda2	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d34cbda2
What If? (Blog) / int_d394829d	type	Frivolous Lawsuit
What If? (Blog) / int_d394829d	comment	Frivolous Lawsuit: 2 undecillion explores what would happen if the guy who filed a 2 undecillion lawsuit actually won. Turns out, he'd never get the money awarded because it's flat out impossible for Au Bon Pain to gather that much money, ever. They wouldn't even get anywhere near the target amount if they were able to convert the Earth's weight into copies of the most valuable item by weight ever sold (the Treskilling Yellow postage stamp) and somehow sold all of them for the original's selling price.
What If? (Blog) / int_d394829d	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d394829d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d394829d
What If? (Blog) / int_d4055b8b	type	Square-Cube Law
What If? (Blog) / int_d4055b8b	comment	Square-Cube Law: Used in "Growth Rate" to explain why nine-plus meter people can't actually live.
What If? (Blog) / int_d4055b8b	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d4055b8b	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d4055b8b
What If? (Blog) / int_d6707631	type	Waxing Lyrical
What If? (Blog) / int_d6707631	comment	Waxing Lyrical: In "Star Sand", one image compares the Sun to stars that are "heavier, bluer, bigger, younger, harder, better, faster, stronger".
What If? (Blog) / int_d6707631	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d6707631	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d6707631
What If? (Blog) / int_d7367835	type	They Knew the Risks
What If? (Blog) / int_d7367835	comment	They Knew the Risks: When trying to figure out the farthest from Earth a living thing has ever died, he first discusses the three humans who have ever died in space and then mentioned there were also several animals, who he can't bring himself to look up the statistics for since while the humans knew the risks, they didn't. This proves to be no problem, because Randall takes a third option and reveals the true answer to be microorganisms.
What If? (Blog) / int_d7367835	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_d7367835	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_d7367835
What If? (Blog) / int_dd6dcee0	type	Tradesnarkâ„¢
What If? (Blog) / int_dd6dcee0	comment	Tradesnarkâ„¢: In "Expensive Shoebox", Randall refers to a particular well-known image editing software as AdobeÂ®Â©â„¢ PhotoshopÂ®Â©â„¢ CSÂ®â„¢ 5â„¢.
What If? (Blog) / int_dd6dcee0	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_dd6dcee0	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_dd6dcee0
What If? (Blog) / int_dee1124e	type	Pooled Funds
What If? (Blog) / int_dee1124e	comment	Pooled Funds: Discussed in "All the Money" as something to do if you summoned all the world's currency. You probably couldn't spend it since the entire human race would be too angry at you for stealing all of their money.
What If? (Blog) / int_dee1124e	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_dee1124e	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_dee1124e
What If? (Blog) / int_e26d8285	type	Explosive Decompression
What If? (Blog) / int_e26d8285	comment	Explosive Decompression: Discussed when listing things in movies that don't actually happen in real life.
What If? (Blog) / int_e26d8285	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_e26d8285	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_e26d8285
What If? (Blog) / int_e2d7b14c	type	Made of Explodium
What If? (Blog) / int_e2d7b14c	comment	Made of Explodium: A humble water glass in "Glass Half Empty", and perfectly justified by pressure physics.
What If? (Blog) / int_e2d7b14c	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_e2d7b14c	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_e2d7b14c
What If? (Blog) / int_e6defce9	type	Bad News in a Good Way
What If? (Blog) / int_e6defce9	comment	Bad News in a Good Way: From "Into the Sun":
What If? (Blog) / int_e6defce9	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_e6defce9	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_e6defce9
What If? (Blog) / int_e9e35e8f	type	Exact Words
What If? (Blog) / int_e9e35e8f	comment	When someone asks "what's the worst thing" that can happen in a pressure cooker, Randall's answer begins with "Note: Never try this, for reasons which will become obvious in a moment."note Because the answer is "dioxygen difluoride" — a chemical so volatile it can make ice catch fire! And don't even think about mixing it with hydrogen sulfide... Luckily, the procedure described is plainly impossible to replicate with kitchen equipment.
What If? (Blog) / int_e9e35e8f	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_e9e35e8f	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_e9e35e8f
What If? (Blog) / int_eb4086e3	type	Big Creepy-Crawlies
What If? (Blog) / int_eb4086e3	comment	Big Creepy-Crawlies: The last part of "Sun Bug" discusses how big a single firefly would have to be to match the brightness of the Sun. The answer is a firefly the size of the Solar System, which under its mass would collapse into the largest black hole in the universe.
What If? (Blog) / int_eb4086e3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_eb4086e3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_eb4086e3
What If? (Blog) / int_eea06f9a	type	Artistic License â€“ Cars
What If? (Blog) / int_eea06f9a	comment	Artistic License â€“ Cars: A rare one for Randall, but it still happened. A question on how much power can be produced by The Force compares Yoda's power output to that of a Smart Car, with Yoda popping out of the front hood of said car. However, the Smart Car is a rear-engine car, with the front flap covering various auxiliary components.
What If? (Blog) / int_eea06f9a	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_eea06f9a	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_eea06f9a
What If? (Blog) / int_eeb4a5eb	type	Anti-Climax
What If? (Blog) / int_eeb4a5eb	comment	Anti-Climax: The book ends this way. In the last chapter, "Richter 15", Randall quickly answers the question of what would happen if a magnitude 15 earthquake hit New York (Earth would be torn to shreds), then decides that after a book filled with horrific and disturbing scenarios, it seems fair to look at some more benign ones, and starts discussing incidents that would trigger the low end of the Richter scale, such as a penny falling off a dog (magnitude -4). The book ends with a scene of Cueball sitting peaceably against a tree, and the caption:
What If? (Blog) / int_eeb4a5eb	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_eeb4a5eb	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_eeb4a5eb
What If? (Blog) / int_eef90616	type	Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick
What If? (Blog) / int_eef90616	comment	Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: What would happen if one tried to funnel Niagara Falls through a straw?:
What If? (Blog) / int_eef90616	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_eef90616	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_eef90616
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a5f7f2	type	Expospeak Gag
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a5f7f2	comment	Expospeak Gag: "Proton Earth, Electron Moon" has Randall refer to an object he calls a "desktop particle accelerator". The phrase is linked to an Amazon search of the translation: CRT monitors. "Stirring Tea" explores what would happen if you stirred tea fast enough: "if you stir hard enough that your tea cavitates, its surface area will increase very rapidly, and it will cool to room temperature in seconds". Meaning, you'd be stirring so fast that you will spill your tea.
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a5f7f2	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a5f7f2	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_f2a5f7f2
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a6d76d	type	Rage Against the Author
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a6d76d	comment	Rage Against the Author: Inverted in "Dropping a Mountain". Randall gets a little annoyed at Black Hat Guy asking "What if we dropped it from higher up?"
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a6d76d	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_f2a6d76d	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_f2a6d76d
What If? (Blog) / int_f466c9b1	type	Overly Long Scream
What If? (Blog) / int_f466c9b1	comment	Overly Long Scream: Both of the Mount Thor images in "Free Fall" have one each in the Alt Text, though the second one is the only one with the obligatory "::gasp::".
What If? (Blog) / int_f466c9b1	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_f466c9b1	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_f466c9b1
What If? (Blog) / int_f6b1ac42	type	Tim Taylor Technology
What If? (Blog) / int_f6b1ac42	comment	Tim Taylor Technology: A number of the questions get MythBusters-esque answers amounting to "What would happen? Not very much. But that's no fun, let's ramp up the power until something crazy happens!"
What If? (Blog) / int_f6b1ac42	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_f6b1ac42	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_f6b1ac42
What If? (Blog) / int_f945dff4	type	Facepalm
What If? (Blog) / int_f945dff4	comment	Even better, Cueball is just standing there facepalming while a woman stands nearby spinning a hammer like an idiot.
What If? (Blog) / int_f945dff4	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_f945dff4	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_f945dff4
What If? (Blog) / int_f9f2c33	type	Running Gag
What If? (Blog) / int_f9f2c33	comment	Running Gag: "You will not go to space today." "What if we tried more power?" Used seven times. Wikipedia's "[citation needed]" is frequently borrowed to be placed next to obvious statements, or obviously silly statements, or as a bit of Self-Deprecation (see below). But later on (#47 was the first), it's also linked to other kinds of citations or things that sound like "citation". Lampshaded in "Into the Blue": From the book: "...I need to know by Friday." As a non-answer to some of the unanswered questions. Here's one of said unanswered questions, just to convey the impression: Illustrations of very large things, like the earth, with the caption, "Actual Size". In one case, Randall uses the capton "Actual Size" on an illustration of a single microbe. Since microbes are invisible to the human eye, it's just an arrow pointing at nothing.note Though as the Alt Text points out, there are microbes on the point of that arrow... "If we [insert thing that would kill many people/humanity/Earth] and for the record, I don't think we should..." Blaming whoever submitted the question for the consequences of actually doing the thing asked about.
What If? (Blog) / int_f9f2c33	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_f9f2c33	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_f9f2c33
What If? (Blog) / int_fa6622fc	type	Instant Gravestone
What If? (Blog) / int_fa6622fc	comment	Instant Gravestone: The end of "Rising Steadily" depicts the unfortunate thought-experiment victim as a steadily-rising gravestone after suffocating to death.
What If? (Blog) / int_fa6622fc	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_fa6622fc	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_fa6622fc
What If? (Blog) / int_fbd285b7	type	Comically Missing the Point
What If? (Blog) / int_fbd285b7	comment	Comically Missing the Point: In the first entry, the question is "What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball going 90% the speed of light?" The result is the complete annihilation of the batter, pitcher, ballpark, and everything within a mile radius. But, for what it's worth: The entire point of "Sunless Earth". Since explanations of what would happen if the sun suddenly went out were both plentiful and not particularly interesting (basically, we'd all freeze and die), Randall instead wrote a long list of awesome things that we'd be able to do if the sun wasn't there... mediated, of course, by the fact that we'd all freeze and die. The third image of "Snow Removal" has a guy with three aircraft carriers tied behind his car to power a snow-melting microwave emitter get pulled over by a police car. (Must be the same guy who put a GAU-8 Avenger on top of his car in "Machine Gun Jetpack".)
What If? (Blog) / int_fbd285b7	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_fbd285b7	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_fbd285b7
What If? (Blog) / int_fcadd0e3	type	Impact Silhouette
What If? (Blog) / int_fcadd0e3	comment	Impact Silhouette: Discussed in "Hockey Puck".
What If? (Blog) / int_fcadd0e3	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_fcadd0e3	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_fcadd0e3
What If? (Blog) / int_fe0330fb	type	Brick Joke
What If? (Blog) / int_fe0330fb	comment	Brick Joke: The finale of "Dropping a Mountain" features a surprise callback to "Drain the Oceans: Part II". The finale of "Lethal Neutrinos" refers back to the first article, "Relativistic Baseball": invoked A double brick in "WWII Films". Near the beginning, it goes off on a tangent about IMDb's tagging system, noting that in addition to this making the site a Browser narcotic, (direct copy-paste, pothole not included) "many people are using the database to catalog every movie containing a scene that satisfies their particular prurient fascination"; a footnote mentions quicksand enthusiasts as an example. Once the entry gets back on track, near the end it hypothesizes a 10-minute movie about the Anglo-Zanzibar War (which lasted only 38 minutes). The very last image is of someone shooting said movie with a phone camera... and labeling it with a bunch of IMDb plot keywords. The Alt Text extends the list of keywords, and the very last one is "possible victim of quicksand". "Orbital Speed" compared the speed of the International Space Station to a bullet on a football field; the ISS could cross the field in the time it takes for the bullet to travel 10 yards. note Cue footnote: "This type of play is legal in Australian rules football." "New Horizons" makes almost the exact same comparison for the titular spacecraft, and an additional comparison for a speeding car; New Horizons reaches the end zone, the bullet wouldn't even make the 10-yard line, and the automobile would have crossed about an inch. note Cue alt-text: "While this play isn't legal in American football, it's permitted in rugby."
What If? (Blog) / int_fe0330fb	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_fe0330fb	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_fe0330fb
What If? (Blog) / int_fea27091	type	Buffy Speak
What If? (Blog) / int_fea27091	comment	Buffy Speak: In "Mariana Trench Explosion" the alt text has, over a picture of the affected area from detonating a nuclear bomb underwater to create waves, "a map showing a thing happening in the atlantic ocean and then another thing happening to the east coast of north america". In "Tatooine Rainbow" Randall mentions types I and II of the Binary Sun systems, calling them "circumbinary" and "the other kind".
What If? (Blog) / int_fea27091	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_fea27091	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_fea27091
What If? (Blog) / int_ff055287	type	Star Scraper
What If? (Blog) / int_ff055287	comment	Star Scraper: Randall explores a billion story building that one 4-year old suggested. It extends about ten times past the orbit of the Moon.
What If? (Blog) / int_ff055287	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ff055287	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ff055287
What If? (Blog) / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
What If? (Blog) / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: Randall Munroe usually walks readers through any math involved in his answers and cites sources for data.
What If? (Blog) / int_ffad4e9f	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_ffad4e9f	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_ffad4e9f
What If? (Blog) / int_name	type	ItemName
What If? (Blog) / int_name	comment
What If? (Blog) / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
What If? (Blog) / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	What If? (Blog) / int_name
What If? (Blog) / int_name	itemName	What If? (Blog)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Whatif	sameAs	What If? (Blog)
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	A Good Name for a Rock Band / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	A Wizard Did It / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Absurd Altitude / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Absurdly Bright Light / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Acquainted with Emergency Services / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	All-Natural Snake Oil / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Alt Text / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	American Literature (T to Z) / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	As the Good Book Says... / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Bad News in a Good Way / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Binary Suns / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Bird-Poop Gag / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Blog / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Blood Sport / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Blunt "No" / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Broke the Rating Scale / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Constrained Writing / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Cool, but Stupid / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Currency Conspiracy / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Don't Try This at Home / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Everything Makes a Mushroom / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Experiment Show / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Eye of Providence / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Footnote Fever / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Full Moon Silhouette / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Gatling Good / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Gonna Need More X / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Grub Tub / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Halfway Plot Switch / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Hard Light / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Hard on Soft Science / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	I Fell for Hours / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Icarus Allusion / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	In Case of X, Break Glass / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Instant Gravestone / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Lightning Can Do Anything / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Literal Metaphor / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Literal Money Metaphor / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Ludicrous Speed / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Made of Explodium / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Major Injury Underreaction / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Missing Steps Plan / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Moving the Goalposts / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Namesake Gag / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	One True Love / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Outlandish Device Setting / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Planetary Relocation / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Planimal / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Pocket Protector / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Post-Apocalyptic Traffic Jam / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Precision-Guided Boomerang / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Preemptive Apology / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Real Joke Name / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Recoiled Across the Room / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Regional Redecoration / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Relax-o-Vision / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Rhetorical Question Blunder / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Ridiculous Future Sequelisation / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Robot War / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Rugby Is Slaughter / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Screwball Squirrel / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Sea Sinkhole / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Soda-Candy 'Splosion / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Spiked Blood / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Star Scraper / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Tally Marks on the Prison Wall / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	The Short War / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	The Stinger / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	The Triple / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	This Ain't Rocket Surgery / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Tim Taylor Technology / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Tradesnarkâ„¢ / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Two-Keyed Lock / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Visual Pun / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Vomit Discretion Shot / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Wave-Motion Gun / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Web First / int_7698b31d
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	You Must Be This Tall to Ride / int_7698b31d
whatif	sameAs	What If? (Blog)
What If? (Blog)	hasFeature	Pooled Funds / int_7698b31d

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.