Template:blog

Used in the what if? index, to mark the article number, date of release, and how late/early the article was. It also colors the cell blue. For the books and the YouTube videos, use {{book}} instead. The number is required, and the date is always needed if known.

Usage

{{blog|ARTICLE-NUMBER|YYYY|MM|DD|LATE-OR-EARLY}}

• If there is no valid ARTICLE-NUMBER, for some reason, it becomes the 'zeroth' blog article.
• Date details are optional, but require at least a prior blank ARTICLE-NUMBER field
• LATE-OR-EARLY is optional (e.g. if 'on schedule'), but requires all prior fields (which can be left blank)

If the blog concerned is only now available from an archive location, give the appropriate URL by appending it to the named archiveOnly= parameter. This does not depend upon any other details.

{{blog|ARTICLE-NUMBER|YYYY|MM|DD|LATE-OR-EARLY|archiveOnly=URL}}

Examples

{{blog|69|YYYY|MM|DD|1m 19d late}}

Produces:

 data-sort-value="69" style="background-color:#cceeff;"|

69^th blog article, on YYYY‑MM‑DD
(1m 19d late)

and

{{blog|69|YYYY|MM|DD}}

Produces:

 data-sort-value="69" style="background-color:#cceeff;"|

69^th blog article, on YYYY‑MM‑DD

and

{{blog|69}}

Produces:

 data-sort-value="69" style="background-color:#cceeff;"|

69^th blog article

and

{{blog}}

Produces:

 data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#cceeff;"|

0^th blog article

and

{{blog|||||Very late!}}

Produces:

 data-sort-value="" style="background-color:#cceeff;"|

0^th blog article
(Very late!)

and

{{blog|69|YYYY|MM|DD|1m 19d late|archiveOnly=https://archive.site/article69}}

Produces:

 data-sort-value="69" style="background-color:#cceeff;"|

69^th blog article, on YYYY‑MM‑DD
(1m 19d late)

and

{{blog|archiveOnly=https://archive.site/article0}}

Produces:

 data-sort-value="0" style="background-color:#cceeff;"|

0^th blog article

Thumbnail	Title	Reader's question	Randall's answer	Blog	Books	YouTube
	Relativistic Baseball	"What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"	The ball would create plasma and reach home plate by about 70 nanoseconds. The result would be some kind of nuclear explosion, destroying everything about a mile from the field. A ruling of "hit by pitch" could be interpreted in this situation.	8th blog article, on 2012‑07‑10 (10d early)	What If?, Chapter 2	5th video, on 2024‑02‑06: What if you threw a baseball at nearly light speed?
	SAT Guessing	"What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple-choice question? How many perfect scores would there be?"	No one would get a perfect score. The odds of guessing correctly on every question would be less than the odds of every ex-living president at that time and the main cast of Firefly getting struck by lightning on the same day.	69th blog article, on YYYY‑MM‑DD (1m 19d late)
	Yoda	"How much Force power can Yoda output?"	Yoda can output about 19.2 kilowatts, or 25 horsepower. "Yoda power" would cost about $2/hour.	420th blog article
	A Mole of Moles	"What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?"	As a mole is such a high number this would be tricky. They would condense into a pressurized sphere of meat that would freeze and occasionally explode from gases.	4th blog article, on 2025‑07‑24
	Robot Apocalypse	"What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?"	Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. If not, then we would all die.	56th blog article, on 2012‑07‑31
	Glass Half Empty	"What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?"	If the vacuum were on the bottom half, it would explode, but if it were on the top half, the air rushes in and it becomes normal water.	100th blog article, on 2012‑08‑07
	Test 'removed' article (#9876)	"What if an article was, for some reason, deleted?"	If the vacuum were on the bottom half, it would explode, but if it were on the top half, the air rushes in and it becomes normal water.	9,876th blog article, on 2061‑07‑28