Could you power a house with the radioactivity from bananas?
Could you power a house with the radioactivity from bananas? Get a copy of What If? 2 and Randall’s other books at: https://xkcd.com/books
More serious answers to absurd questions at: https://what-if.xkcd.com/
This question comes from Ji, who asks: “I heard bananas are radioactive. If they’re radioactive, then they radiate energy. How many bananas would you need to power a house?”
Yes, bananas emit radiation, but not very much of it. They’re very safe – until you use them to power a house.
Credits
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Randall Munroe | Narrator
Henry Reich | Writer & Director
Lizah van der Aart | Illustration and Video Editing
Ever Salazar | Chief Chaos Controller
Know Art Studios | Music & Sound Effects
What If? The Video Series is the official adaptation of the What If? books by Randall Munroe and is produced by Neptune Studios LLC.
Randall Munroe is the author of the New York Times bestsellers What If? 2, How To, What If?, and Thing Explainer; the science question-and-answer blog What If?; and the popular web comic xkcd (https://xkcd.com). A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the internet full time.
Henry Reich is the creator of MinutePhysics and executive producer of MinuteEarth and MinuteFood and founder of Neptune Studios LLC (the parent company for all three youtube channels).
©2026 xkcd, inc.radioactivitybanananuclear energyLINK