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A4 Paper Is Too Perfect

50 videos recommended on HN
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2 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2024–2026 score 3
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

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

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.

“the most psychedelic experience one can have without doing drugs” (HN, 2026)

2 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 2 citations · Explainers

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@ProllyInfamous Jan 2026 Strongly recommends
on HN thread A4 Paper Stories
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. [•] < [this 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 ...
Favorite CGP Grey video; psychedelic tour from Planck lengths to observable universe.
@ProllyInfamous Apr 2026 Strongly recommends
on HN thread God Sleeps in the Minerals
Zoom out, too: [CGP Grey - Metric Paper] < [this video] > - among my favorite videos Yet even Plancks remain analogue ...
Zoom-out video among commenter's favorites.
@jihadjihad Jan 2026 Recommends
on HN thread A4 Paper Stories
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: [this video]
Deeper detail into metric paper, well worth a watch.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@xanth Feb 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Making a PDF that's larger than Germany
Related CGPGrey video comparing metric paper sizes to comparable objects from the plank scale to the galactic[1]; could have been an XKCD comic [1]: [this video]
Compares metric paper sizes to objects from Planck scale to galactic.
@bogtog Apr 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Scale of the Universe
I think this Zoom in/out physics story has pretty widely been told. Here is one by CPG Grey: [this video] I like the one OP linked here. All the objects being clickable with a little description is nice
Another zoom in/out telling of physics scales.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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