Horizon How Long is a Piece of String? full version

[WickedSlum]

i usually like programs like this, but these guys are just making up problems.. and it's not even a real problem. they should've called this program "how long can i measure this string"

Cause his string is 319 mm and 442 micro meters, the machine said so

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[00Billy]

ct scan..lol

[richards9407]

Why do you need to draw the blinds and whisper to draw a picture of an atom with a felt pen?

[JRufu]

One of my favourites.

[UltimateReality100]

40:42 Awkward laugh

[MrJantjesmit]

the length of the string is the maximum straight distance between the most extreme points on the string. The roughness (coastline analogy) is not relevant, though interesting. The most accurate you can get is limited by the heisenberg principle... end of story...i think.... ;)

[gabsner1]

...so quantum mechanics are poetry?

[h0bgobl1n]

Twice the distance from the middle "EASY!".... next question.

[EugeneMarks]

@h0bgobl1n lol Awesome. Som1 hire this guy for Prez.

[Redflowers9]

lol it's great how he plays dumb and marcus gives you the info... to be honest though, it just seems intuitive that everything is a possibility

[palehoney79]

we are all the size of a sugarcube O_o

[desdemonepasbegueule]

great documentary. also, I was wondering if someone knew the title of the song played around 45:02 when they talk about quantum mechanics and its effect in the real world. thanks for answering!

[cagethug]

He was using Ubuntu!!! 3:35 XD!

[occultologist]

it's interesting how different people from different fields answer it differently. i came to it from a philosophical point of view, because i'm interested in philosophy. 1st from a metaphysical point of view, then a language point of view, than a psychological point of view, i think i settled on the psychological. the mathematicians have a more hands on approach, they want to compare it with something physical.

[occultologist]

it's as long as my dick, it's as long as the turd i just left in the toilet.

[occultologist]

i suppose it depends on how you wanna answer the question, and how much time you have on your hands, it's open ended, you can answer it with kick to the groin. questions divorced from real world activity and consequences can be answered in all sorts of ways. here's how i'm choosing to answer it- fuck you.

[occultologist]

fundamentally it's a language problem, not a metaphysical challenge.

[occultologist]

if you ask me how many rooms a house has, i can say 1 to ?

if you ask me, does a house have walls. the answer is a resolute yes. a house has to have walls in order to be a house, 4 walls and a roof, i would think. but as to what color, what size, it varies considerably.

[occultologist]

any response besides the one i gave delves head 1st into metaphysical mumbo jumbo bullshit. it's evading the question, or making it out to be more than it is, which is what i originally was guilty of doing.

it's simple--- it can be any length.

if you ask me what color a house is--- (if i want to give you an answer that indicates what we normally mean by the word house, otherwise i can give you any answer i want, i can say it's pink and purple striped) the answer is it can be any color.

[occultologist]

i define schmmog as a marshmallow with one cherry on top of it, if you ask me how many cherries are on top of a schmmog, i can answer one, if you ask me how wide a schmmog is, i will tell you it depends on the schmmog, for i did not specify a width requirement for defining a marshmallow with one cherry on top of it as a schmmog.

thus, the answer to the question is--- (according to how we have historically defined string), there is no specific length requirement for string, it can be any length.

[occultologist]

if we defined string as being 2 inches long, then any string that exceeded/or fell short of 2 inches long, could no longer be defined as string without confusing/contradicting ourselves. then the only correct answer could be, 2 inches. but there is no specific length requirement of string, it can be any length. it depends on how you define the word, ah that's it. and since words are constructs, we can make them what ever we want them to be.

[occultologist]

in a practical sense, the question is ludicrous, in a theoretical sense, though, it is meant to provoke philosophical debate, and thought, about the nature of reality itself, logic and language, and in that sense, it's a good question.

[occultologist]

there are no absolutes, take a thing out of it's context and anything/nothing can be said about it.

how many bees are there in a cup?

you're not given enough information to answer that question, the question is ridiculous.

cup is an abstraction. there are big cups, small cups, cups that could contain 100s of bees, and cups that could contain only a few. string is an idea, it is not a thing, it denotes a relation between things varying things.

[occultologist]

in this universe, metal is relatively harder than most things, there is no hard. in a different universe, metal may be the softest thing.

how long is a string, obviously it depends on the string.

the question is too vague, too ambiguous, is a car fast, is a dog red?

even if you're given a particular string to measure, the question is still meaningless.

in the measuring system i just invented, it's 20 Katuscha's long.

[occultologist]

these people are idiots. everything is nothing in and of itself, or everything is potentially anything, but kinetically something. things are (blank) by virtue of how they interact with other things. Things and their qualities are comparative. is a stone hard, is a stone soft? the sentence is retarded. there is no hard, or soft, these are static properties, static properties cannot exist outside the mind. the sensible question ought to be, is a stone harder than this, is a stone softer thanthat

[DrSusanSchulman]

Awesome! Fascinating! Thank you so much for uploading this entire program.

[kamsmelon1]

In Buddha teaching. All objects included our body, even the universe the same. It having a infinity of energy (vibration). We are all connect. All things created under the conditional causation and have a boundry. To leave out from the boundry. You must need to fully understand the law of nature how to run. A Mi Ta Fu!

[GunnerAstro]

mind blown like BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

[M4G1KLyfe]

i saw this on t.v and i just wanted to see it again it was just fascinating.

[jnet67]

this is one of the most fascinating documentaries I have ever seen! And the fact that it's Alan Davies makes it so appealing.

[Mp9724]

very interesting

[FFSray]

the quantum physicist laughs like masuka from dexter.

[Deicidead]

@FFSray was gonna post the same thing.

[Temenes]

03:35 ubuntu!

[trapezoidart]

lol i love scientists

[DrPokiaka]

I'm confused lol

[baddam95]

He reminds me of James May.

[Bianso]

"...You can only measure shiny flat things?"

Thank you for the upload! Bringing knowledge and entertainment to us who live outside the BBC's sphere of influence.

[Homi390000]

hahahahahahahahaha "God Lord he gave me the history of geometry" xDD

[seskie]

1 dislike? Einstein must have watched this video.

[alphamc2k]

@seskie Ohp! It's two dislikes, now. Musta' been Podolsky. I wonder where Rosen is.

[seskie]

@alphamc2k Probably still on dial-up and can't load the full video.

[2eelShmeal]

Fake ass fuckin laugh

[Primordialfan1]

I expected the QI buzzer to go off every 2 minutes during this.

[revannevar]

I like how the math prof is running ubuntu at about 3:10

[xxciuroxx]

bloody brits, wasting my time

[gigawebsurfer]

Dr. Simon Gain is cute!!

[MisiaczekPysiaczek]

sznurkomierz!? This is so funny, love it. Thanks for posting.

[KTMONEY100]

Reminds me alot of Down the Rabbit hole.....Alot of very unscientific views of what quantum mechanics has found......and Schodingers cat thought experiment was made for the exact opposite reason, to show these crazy hypothesis are rediculous.....

[Lindhe94]

Hm, wonder if I could do a project about this in school...

[MarkArandjus]

That physics teacher - I've never seen someone so friendly yet with such a scary grin in my life before :D

[Frutoses]

From a philosophical point of view, we can't measure what a "piece" is.

[alienrobotmonkey]

sub-quantum physicists killed the quantum physicists stars! (sung to the tune of video killed teh radio star

[xiaowangawoshi]

how beautiful a plant!

[theakstonsrock]

That high school physics teacher is totally bat shit.

[MrNoak2]

I saw this on tv a few months ago, I am so happy I found it again! Very interesting stuff.

[ELuhn]

Poor Alan, people just love to mess with his fluffy little head.

[touc2007]

We (Aust) just had this aired in June 2011 although its prob been on b4. The most awesome bit of television Ive seen in ages. Well done production crew!! A Davies what a fascinating life you have.

[payitup92]

Are these guys stoned lol

[DeadWhiteButterflies]

The physics teacher is quite creepy.

[Doublicon]

Ma brains is hertz.

[xexcat]

@MyNameIsGeno Mister super genius will you watch that part again, for the sake of you honor and respectability! The guy was asked to GUESS!!!!! He guessed 9 inches! Please take a common sense course or better yet think before you criticize!

[m0rtem]

@MyNameIsGeno whoosh!

[joeyjoejojo]

@MyNameIsGeno ur a dirk

[nylife]

@MyNameIsGeno @ 6:27 they ask the Ticket Collector how long the length was. His guess was 9 inches. Each mini segment has a length reference that correlates in some (usually semi humorous/ironic) way to the proceeding segments discussion on the length of the string. Maybe the BBC was using too subtle a production technique? Perhaps you should tell them to take a movie course?

[insideous57]

that cat thing reminds me of shutting the fridge as a kid and wondering if the food had a party until I opened the door again :L now I learn that it isn't even THERE until I see it again!

[jorgejzwu]

do not mix concepts. Confine yourself in a certain scope.

[philosopherstudios]

I must say that as much as I enjoy physics, I would have enjoyed my high school and college physics classes a hell of a lot more if Alan Davies had been teaching or even if he'd just been there to provide witty banter with my professor during the lessons.

Regardless, my favorite part of this whole thing is Alan on the carousel around 36:43. It's adorably hilarious! Alan Davies is just awesome in general though.

[HeyWeemsical]

0 dislikes. Only cool people will spend long enough on a 59 minute video about physics to like or dislike it.

[ThemBonesthere]

good post :) BTW can anybody tell me who is the artist of the chilled house track used frequently in the vid? Please! Thanks :P

[frogambassador]

At the end of every conversation they have to laugh really stupidly about really un-funny things. I think all these scientists are socially inept nerds. Like me.

[JollSSteR]

1. The cat would observe it so it wouldnt be dead/alive at the same time.

2. How can things have happened before anyone observed it?

[nickshel]

Nice. Sick documentary. Quite a few things I didn't know.

[NeoWoodstockHippie]

How-Long-Is-A-Piece-Of-String info

[CairoDuqane]

8:22 sounds like it came from Alan's Teenage Revolution.

[Incendiae4]

Thanks!

[ilytopy]

the quantum physicist has such a creepy mad scientist laugh.

[rsotbairnfire]

@ilytopy Especially creepy after he says "she was a beautiful cat".

[ScarletSinn]

Thank you