March 30, 2022
#2600: Rejected Question Categories explain
In What If? 2 (xkcd.com/whatif2), I answer ridiculous questions sent in by readers about everything from volcanoes to spaceships to soup.
Here are a few of the common types of question that I did not answer:
[In separate boxes for each category]
[In row 1:]
People cheating on homework: What if I made a pendulum by hanging a rock on a 2.75 meter string? What would its period be in seconds? (Show your work!)
Medical advice: What if you got a scratch and the next day your hand looks like this [📎 attachment]? Should you see a doctor or what?
Personal: Why don’t the squirrels in my yard like me???
[In row 2:]
Spam: Do you want to meet lonely singles in your area tonight?
Phishing: Have you recently been the victim of phishing? To check, log in to your account by clicking here.
Requests for help with a crime: Using modern science, what would be the fastest way to get through this bank vault door? [📎 blueprints]
[In row 3:]
Unanswerable: Why am I me and not someone else
Vague: What is going to happen? (Be specific)
Vague+Ominous: Will I have to start worrying about spiders after Tuesday?
?????: Hi, we’re lonely singles in your area, and we’re wondering what would happen if we shot a nuclear bomb into a volcano! [partially cut off horizontally:] Click here to log in and tell us