How Long is a Piece of String? - BBC Horizon

Alan Davies attempts to answer the proverbial question: how long is a piece of string? But what appears to be a simple task soon turns into a mind-bending voyage of discovery where nothing is as it seems.

An encounter with leading mathematician Marcus du Sautoy reveals that Alan's short length of string may in fact be infinitely long. When Alan attempts to measure his string at the atomic scale, events take an even stranger turn. Not only do objects appear in many places at once, but reality itself seems to be an illusion.

Ultimately, Alan finds that measuring his piece of string could - in theory at least - create a black hole, bringing about the end of the world.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• BBC
• Horizon
• How
• Long
• Is
• Piece
• Of
• String

[em1twitch]

Damn it, maths isn't real. This needs more philosophers!

[greatestdirector]

accuracy and abstraction...

[saigondj]

did they go on a date?

[fhorn4ever2007]

this program has made me so confussed - i will never be the same again. Thankyou BBC - while im confussed as hell, at least I learned something new ^_^

[vampineze]

can you fit through the hole in the wall?

[junjunjun233]

Infinite makes total sense.

[junjunjun233]

cool..

[laudiumWP]

I remember my math teacher telling me that its impossible to touch anything, or something...

you can never reach zero, you can get as close as you want, but you never touch anything. I never understood this, till I was in AP chemistry and we learned about quantum mechanics.

That bill hicks quote about LSD makes total sense.

"We are an imagination of ourselves, there is no such thing as death...."

[nacochingon1]

this is phisyc or metaphysic?

[degentrified]

3:27 Ubuntu Rules.