A4 Paper Is Too Perfect

CGP Grey · 10.5M views · 2021-03-26 · 8:44

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Overview

CGP Grey explains the elegant ratio of A4 and the metric paper sizes, then zooms out across scales from the Planck length to the observable universe.

On Hacker News

Loved for its zoom-out tour of physical scales and recommended alongside other paper-size and scale-of-the-universe discussions.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2024–2026

Topics

Recreational & visual math Physics & space (other)

What people said

ProllyInfamous · 2026-04 · Strong recommendation
Zoom out, too: [CGP Grey - Metric Paper] < [VIDEO] > - among my favorite videos Yet even Plancks remain analogue ...
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ProllyInfamous · 2026-01 · Strong recommendation
You beat me in posting this (I searched for "CGP," first — you mispelled so I didn't see your comment). ---- My favorite CGP Grey video is Metric Paper... , which explores the vast (but limited) world we live in, from plancs to observable universe. [•] < [VIDEO] > Before generative AI videos, this had been what I considered "the most psychedelic experience one can have without doing drugs ." It's still a trip ...
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jihadjihad · 2026-01 · Recommendation
CPG Grey has a video [0] that goes into some, let's just say deeper , detail into metric paper that is well worth a watch if you haven't seen it. 0: [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by CGP Grey, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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