Raindrop
what-if.xkcd.comAtmospheric scientists try for years to piece together what happened, but no explanation is forthcoming. Eventually, they give up, and the unexplained meteorological phenomenon is simply dubbed a “Skrillex Storm”—because, in the words of one researcher, “It had one hell of a drop.”
Estimated reading time: 4 min
Machine Gun Jetpack
what-if.xkcd.comThis suggests our optimal craft comprises a large number of AK-47s (a minimum of 25 but ideally at least 300) carrying 250 rounds of ammunition each. The largest versions of this craft could accelerate upward to vertical speeds approaching 100 meters per second, climbing over half a kilometer into the air.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
Relativistic Baseball
what-if.xkcd.comAfter about 70 nanoseconds the ball arrives at home plate. The batter hasn't even seen the pitcher let go of the ball, since the light carrying that information arrives at about the same time the ball does. Collisions with the air have eaten the ball away almost completely, and it is now a bullet-shaped cloud of expanding plasma (mainly carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen) ramming into the air and triggering more fusion as it goes.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
Interplanetary Cessna
what-if.xkcd.comUnfortunately, X-Plane is not capable of simulating the hellish environment near the surface of Venus. But physics calculations give us an idea of what flight there would be like. The upshot is: Your plane would fly pretty well, except it would be on fire the whole time, and then it would stop flying, and then stop being a plane.
Estimated reading time: 6 min
BB Gun
what-if.xkcd.comAt t=150 ms, the locomotive has crawled forward about six meters, but it’s absorbing several hundred bullets each millisecond. This has begun to slow its forward momentum (and tear it apart—let’s assume it’s loaded full of some kind of lightweight material that distributes the shock of the bullet evenly).
Estimated reading time: 6 min
Spent Fuel Pool
what-if.xkcd.comI got in touch with a friend of mine who works at a research reactor, and asked him what he thought would happen to you if you tried to swim in their radiation containment pool. “In our reactor?” He thought about it for a moment. “You’d die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds.”
Estimated reading time: 4 min
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