Infinate?

Obviously it's as long as the label on the ball says. Duh!

I'd hazard a guess at around 2500 metres if you want a real answer. Something to do with the way a plot of land was measure in Olde English times I've heard?

I forgot to answer this lol!

How long is a piece of string?

Its twice the distance from the centre to one end

oh btw.. since you answered correctly you get to ask the next question!

nice thread, and good to see you mr notfound!

jiltedgenerator should get a question as well for giving the correct answer to the 'how long is a piece of string' question (infinity).

Right finally get to post something - was inturupted earlier when I was half way though answering a question *face palm*


Anyways here goes

'How long is a piece of string?'


Well to answer this question you must look at 'where' you measure the piece of string.
Along the central axis of the string?
Or along the edge?

Also .... Where are the ends of the string and are they frayed ?

How do you measure it ? - Laying down on a table or hanging from a object to make it stretch ?

Now - in what measurement do you measure it in ?
Metric - imperial - heck maybe even in Egyptian cubit's

Then After all these boring questions are answered theres more !

Quantum Mechanics!! Which I'm personally not going to get into cause I dont particually understand what I'm talking about. Though I have read up on the subject as well as looking into Quantum Physics - I like to read about things that are way beyond my understanding lol!
Anyways not straying off the subject ...

Despite all this my question is this :
How long do you want the answer to be ??



And yes I do believe I wrote all that just to ask another question on the question you just asked !

nice way to tackle the question!

unfortunately jilted already answered the string question - the answer is infinity

what is that string theory anyways?

i'm no expert in all this, but it goes something like this -

because the string is at its very basic level made up of subatomic particles you have to measure them to get the true length of the string.

unfortunately subatomic particles exist in a quantum state and therefore are constantly flashing in and out of existence, behaving like waves one minute and particles the next, as well as traveling backwards and forwards in time.

although the string looks real to us, it's an illusion.
the string is actually here and not here at the same time, solid and wave-like, and constantly going back and forth in time.

therefore the length of the string is here, there, not here, now, then, tomorrow, yesterday, etc.... it just depends at which particular moment you try and measure it.

in short, it's everywhere and nowhere at the same time!

*scratches head and starts mumbling and drooling*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GDC3u8k02c

*head asplodes*

classic!

forgotten about that one - cheers warp3


got me thinking about the family guy episode where stuie and brian go off to loads of alternative universes - great episode!

there's a futurama episode where they did something similar as well i think. or i might have imagined it lol

heres an easier way to answer that question when someone asks you it in person


heres an example.


your getting your car fixed and you waiting for ages in the waiting room, you go up to the mechanic and ask how longs its going to take, he replies by saying "well how long is a piece of string", you've obviously predicted this and you've got yourself a piece of string you know is 15 cm long so you reply by pulling out the string and saying "well this piece of string is 15 cm long, so when will my car get sorted then ?"

that will show them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80jxKQP2V0Y


I see no ones posted this

I feel a big head now for finding (and remembering) that this was on the Tv a while ago

that doc was what made me realise that the string is infinite lol

the experts in it are all all a bit odd (as you'd expect), especially the pony tail guy with the freaky laugh if i remember correctly. marcus du sautoy is always great to see though. his history of maths is cool if you're into this sort of thing...