2018-11-27

[public] 4.79M views, 169K likes, 7.81K dislikes audio only

Vsauce2

An ant is placed on one end of a rubber rope and he begins walking at about 5cm per second. As he’s walking, the rope gets stretched… and stretched… at a rate of 10cm per second. The rope is getting stretched faster and longer relative to the ant’s consistent walking pace.

Can the ant ever get to the end of the rope? Is he caught in an endless, impossible trek in which the end keeps getting further and further away?

This classic paradox has very real implications to how we understand our position in a rapidly-expanding universe.

*********** LINKS *************

The Create Unknown Podcast: https://bit.ly/2TKVDdc

What Is A Paradox?: /youtube/video/kJzSzGbfc0k

Ant On A Rubber Rope Discussion:

https://bit.ly/2DYQ7it

Harmonic Series Proof on Khan Academy

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/ap-calculus-bc/bc-series-new/bc-10-6/v/harmonic-series-divergent

Harmonic Series Proofs

http://scipp.ucsc.edu/~haber/archives/physics116A10/harmapa.pdf

Harmonic Series Proof

https://web.williams.edu/Mathematics/lg5/harmonic.pdf

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Written by Matthew Tabor, Michael Stevens and Kevin Lieber

Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Craftality

Get Vsauce's favorite science and math toys delivered to your door!

https://www.curiositybox.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VsauceTwo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VsauceTwo

Hosted, Produced, And Edited by Kevin Lieber

Instagram: http://instagram.com/kevlieber

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinlieber

Website: http://kevinlieber.com

Research And Writing by Matthew Tabor

https://twitter.com/matthewktabor

Special Thanks Michael Stevens

https://www.youtube.com/user/Vsauce

VFX By Eric Langlay

https://www.youtube.com/c/ericlanglay

Select Music By Jake Chudnow: http://www.youtube.com/user/JakeChudnow

MY PODCAST -- THE CREATE UNKNOWN

https://www.youtube.com/thecreateunknown