Name: Comics that ask "what if?"
Uploaded: 2014-05-08T14:57:50Z
Duration: 9 min 16 s
Description: Web cartoonist Randall Munroe answers simple what-if questions ("what if you hit a baseball moving at the speed of light?") using math, physics, logic and deadpan humor. In this charming talk, a reader's question about Google's data warehouse leads Munroe down a circuitous path to a hilariously over-detailed answer — in which, shhh, you might actually learn something.

Web cartoonist Randall Munroe answers simple what-if questions ("what if you hit a baseball moving at the speed of light?") using math, physics, logic and deadpan humor. In this charming talk, a reader's question about Google's data warehouse leads Munroe down a circuitous path to a hilariously over-detailed answer — in which, shhh, you might actually learn something.

Randall Munroe: Comics that ask "what if?"

Comics that ask "what if?"

A baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light would cause nuclear fusion, creating a blast wave, disintegrating everything nearby.

Estimating Google's data storage using financial, power, and infrastructure clues suggests it holds around 15 exabytes of data.

In response to a detailed inquiry about its data storage, Google's whimsical reply was simply "No comment," conveyed via punch cards.