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The Middle of Everything Ever

The Middle of Everything Ever

Update: 2022-12-0934
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After graduating from high school, without a clear plan for what to do next, Laura Andrews started asking herself a lot of questions. A spiral of big philosophical thoughts that led her to sit down and write to us with a question that was… oddly mathematical.  What is the most average size thing, if you take into account everything in the universe. So, along with mathematician Steven Strogatz, we decided to see if we could sit down and, in a friendly throwdown of guesstimates and quick calculations, rough out an answer. 


Special thanks to all the listeners who sent in their responses to this question.


Episode Credits:Reported by - Soren Wheeler and Alex NeasonProduced by - Annie McEwenwith mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Natalie A. Middletonand Edited by  - Alex Neason


Citations:


BooksYou can find links to many books by Steven Strogatz here: https://www.stevenstrogatz.com/all-books


MediaAnd the podcast he does for Quanta Magazine, The Joy of Why, here: https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why/


Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.


 


Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Comments (4)

Daniel McCullough

Fun episode!

Feb 14th
Reply

Paula Sun

how is the sum of 10^26 + 10^-38 is 10^-8????? it will be almost same as 10^26.

Feb 2nd
Reply

Paula Sun

same question, that doesn't make any sense. a huge number plus a tiny number's average will be almost half of the big number. . unless he did a weighted average by the count of the things. also I think the question is asking the median, not average . the hosts ' understanding of math is disconcerting.

Feb 2nd
Reply

Sadegh Hashemi

How is (10^(-8)) ÷ 2 = (10^(-4)) ?!

Dec 31st
Reply
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The Middle of Everything Ever

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