## What if? by xkcd

* Author: u/raymestalez *
* URL: https://what-if.xkcd.com
* Score: 22

* Created: 2015-08-07T09:14:13

### Post:

[Link to content](https://what-if.xkcd.com)

### Comments:

> **u/ArgentStonecutter** [+5]  *Emergency Mustelid Hologram* (an hour later)
> 
> I guess this blows away that Poul Anderson (I think) story where a spaceship saves itself by reaching the level it floats in a gas-giant atmosphere.
> 
> I only recall one line in the story now, _"Like a bubble in a densitometer, the <name of ship> floated"_. Utterly ungoogle-able. Anyone remember this one?

>> **u/Hurkel** [+1]  (3 hours later)
>> 
>> > Anyone remember this one?
>> 
>> Cold Victory.

>>> **u/ArgentStonecutter** [+1]  *Emergency Mustelid Hologram* (4 hours later)
>>> 
>>> > Cold Victory
>>> 
>>> That's a short story collection. What was the name of the particular story?

>>>> **u/Hurkel** [+3]  (4 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> *Brake*.
>>>> 
>>>> I found a pdf of the book [here](http://whatcanimake.noip.me:8000/mike/secdir/books/scifi/pdf/Poul%20Anderson/Poul%20Anderson%20-%20Cold%20Victory.pdf).

>>>>> **u/ArgentStonecutter** [+2]  *Emergency Mustelid Hologram* (4 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>> 
>>>>> Edit: and I found a typo in the very sentence that I was looking for:
>>>>> 
>>>>> > Like an old drop in a densitometer, like a free balloon over eighteenth-century France, like a small defiant bubble in the sky, the “Thunderbolt” floated.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Should be "oil drop".
>>>>> 
>>>>> [obviously my memory compacted the sentence since I first read it]

>>>>>> **u/sparr** [+2]  (2 days later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The PDF is an OCR of the book. There are a lot of "typos" switching "i" for "l" and vice versa, and some o/a and some e/c as well.

>> **u/FuguofAnotherWorld** [+1]  *Roll the Dice on Fate* (4 hours later)
>> 
>> It could still work so long as the spaceship was many, many times stronger and less meltable than a submarine. Being less dense would help too.

>>> **u/ArgentStonecutter** [+2]  *Emergency Mustelid Hologram* (4 hours later)
>>> 
>>> It was definitely less dense, particularly after they stripped it of all unnecessary mass to pull the trick off. It helps that it was made of improbably strong materials.

>> **u/sparr** [+1]  (2 days later)
>> 
>> There are a few stories where ships descend into Jupiter's atmosphere and float with hot-hydrogen balloons before lifting back off using rockets.

> **u/DangerouslyUnstable** [+4]  (8 hours later)
> 
> I love the what-if posts but Randall has clearly taken on more than he can chew since the update schedule has gotten completely bonkers. Even after a several month hiatus, he is apparently not doing regular weekly posts anymore. 
> 
> I realize that as a consumer of his products (and one who doesn't even pay at that!) I have very little right to complain about scheduling, but I honestly wish he would go to a less frequent but more regular schedule.
> 
> All that being said, perhaps one of the best comics for rational fiction type stuff.

> **u/raymestalez** [+2]  (29 seconds later)
> 
> Everybody probably knows about it already, but I figured it belongs on this subreddit.

>> **u/PeridexisErrant** [+1]  *put aside fear for courage, and death for life* (2 days later)
>> 
>> I'm not sure it's quite *fiction*, but this seems like a case to apply the spirit instead of the letter of the rules!

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