What If

0 Commentsby   |  08.01.12  |  Fun

Christmas has come early this year, but instead of Santa Claus we have Randall Munroe to thank.  He is a genius, a cartoonist, and interestingly enough, a physics major.  XCKD, his webcomic named by carefully choosing an unpronounceable four-letter name, is subtitled “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”   The warning at the bottom is also important: “Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).”  The comics are brilliant, and I’ve probably shown dozens and dozens of these in lectures over the years.  There’s plenty more I’d like to show, but are unsuitable for mixed company and un-tenured professors (the relativity of simultaneity joke comes to mind).  So how do we improve on ultra-geeky-and-funny web humor?  Why, with What If of course.

ANSWERING YOUR HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS WITH PHYSICS, EVERY TUESDAY.

He has devoted every Tuesday to answering an interesting question with rock-solid physics.  His first post, Relativistic Baseball, explores a pitch at 90% the speed of light, and ends up with a fascinating result.  Yesterday’s post tackles a subject near to my heart (after just finishing a semester of Pattern Recognition), the Robot Apocalypse.

Have fun exploring!  If thinking about a mole of moles doesn’t get you through the week, then nothing will.

-Dr D

Add a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.