XKCD: What If and How-To
First, xkcd is a Cloudeight Site Pick. It takes a lot of work to stumble on a site like this—not really. The key word in that sentence is “stumble.” This morning, I stumbled on this site and wasted two hours chortling, scratching my head, and wondering why people ask such questions.
Our site pick is xkcd’s What If and How to section. Before we give you a couple of examples of what you’ll find there, we’ll tell you a bit about the site.
xkcd.com is a project and a labor of love of Randall Munroe.
The following is from the website:
Serious answers to absurd questions and absurd advice for common concerns from xkcd’s Randall Munroe.
Who are you?
I’m just this guy, you know? I’m a CNU graduate with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. As of June 2007 I live in Massachusetts. In my spare time I climb things, open strange doors, and go to goth clubs dressed as a frat guy so I can stand around and look terribly uncomfortable. At frat parties I do the same thing, but the other way around.
xkcd.com updates without fail every Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Now for a couple of examples of what you’ll find on xkcd.com
Example #1…
Earth-Moon Fire Pole
My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman’s pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth?
Ramon Schönborn, Germany
First, let’s get a few things out of the way:
In real life, we can’t put a metal pole between the Earth and the Moon. The end of the pole near the Moon would be pulled toward the Moon by the Moon’s gravity, and the rest of it would be pulled back down to the Earth by the Earth’s gravity. The pole would be torn in half.
Another problem with this plan. The Earth’s surface spins faster than the Moon goes around, so the end that dangled down to the Earth would break off if you tried to connect it to the ground:
There’s one more problem: The Moon doesn’t always stay the same distance from Earth. Its orbit takes it closer and farther away. It’s not a big difference, but it’s enough that the bottom 50,000 km of your fire station pole would be squished against the Earth once a month…
Example #2…
Flood Death Valley
Since Death Valley is below sea level could we dig a hole to the ocean and fill it up with water?
—Nick Traeden
Yes! We can do anything we want. We shouldn’t do this, though, because it would be gross.
Death Valley is an endorheic basin in California. The floor of the valley is about 80 meters below sea level. It contains the lowest point on land in North America and is the hottest place on Earth.
Now, if you’re the sort of person who’s into world records, you might have heard that the hottest place on Earth was Al Azizia, Libya. Al Azizia recorded a temperature of 58.0°C (136.4°F) in 1922, a mark Death Valley has never come close to. So what gives…
There are dozens more “What if” and “How To” articles like those two. We just wanted to give you a couple of small samples of what you’ll find when you visit our site pick. You also learn how to burn up New York City with bananas, if you can use a toaster in your freezer, if you can “electrofish” for whales, and a lot more.
If you have an inquiring mind and are looking for serious answers to absurd questions, look no further than our site pick the “What if” section of xkcd.com.
Hee Hee. I think people don’t know what to do with their minds.