How Long Is A Piece Of String??

Factual Questions
1

I am looking for the most definitive answer to the queston below when no values are given whatsoever so that it may hold for any value:

Q: HOW LONG IS A PIECE OF STRING??

The best answer I can come up with that might hold for any given value is:

A: A PIECE OF STRING IS EXACTLY TWICE THE LENGTH FROM ITS CENTRE TO ANY ONE GIVEN POINT OF ENDING OF THE PIECE OF STRING, IN ANY PATICULAR DIRECTION OF ITS POSITION.

I would love if people could question, add to or refine this answer for me so we can hopefully come up with something or disprove it entirely!!!

2

I think you’ve nailed it.

3

If you’re trying to do this without any axioms, you’ll have to define the center (midpoint). Since you mention the endpoint, wouldn’t the lenght just be the distance from one end point to the other?

4

A piece of string is twice as long as half of it

5

A piece of string is exactly 47 centimetres long.

Yep.

47cm.

6

Unless the piece of string is woven in an unbroken circle, of course. In which case you’ll need to integrate the circumference between the inner and outer diameters.

7

I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. String isn’t long at all; it’s always very short, but of variable width - often very wide indeed.

8

Hmm, circular reasoning…
A given piece of string is exactly as long as that same given piece of string.

9

I think this statement, at least in as far as it applies to real-world scenarios, requires some qualifiers, for example:
-Were the two measurements taken under identical ambient conditions?
-Was the measuring equipment and methodology identical (and identically calibrated) in each case?
-Did the act of measuring the string the first time in any way alter its length?

10

Also, if the string was wet it would stretch more than if it were dry.

We live in wondrous times

11

[Old, ethnically-offensive answer to joke, given for historical context only]
Q: How Long is a Piece of String?
A: No, How Long is a Chinaman!
[/Old, ethnically-offensive answer to joke, given for historical context only]

(see also: How High is a Chinaman?)

12

I don’t get this, no I’m afraid not

A frayed knot…snerk

13

D(2) = L

Where D is the distance from the center to one end point, and where L is the total length.

Now I just wait for the part where someone tells me I’m wrong. :slight_smile:

14

Reminds me of my dad’s story about when he was at school, and his schoolmate went to the bathroom while they were explaining representative algebra. When he returned, he heard the teacher say “and X is equal to 5”. Which fact he retained for every equation in which he encountered X for the next two years, and eventually flunked math.

15

I don’t know if this helps, but on the offchance… Could I just point out that one shaftment is equal to a little over 1.5 fists, or just over one tenth of a goad.

16

Is every piece of string exactly as long as we’d like it to be? Well, no, of course not. Are some pieces of string shorter than we’d expected. Oh, goodness, yes. String is messy. Questions that ask “How long is a piece of string?” are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are strings we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some strings we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don’t know we don’t know. How long is a piece of string? I think the question answers itself.

17

Ok, well, that’s the US position.

The Iraqi position is “There is no string at the airport. Not now, not ever.”

18

If we gave an exact length for the string it would just embolden the terrorists.

19

Indeed so; I mitigate this situation by keeping all of my pieces of string that are too short in a drawer labelled “pieces of string too short to be of use”.

20

A piece of string is always exactly 6 inches shorter than what you need.