A4 Paper Is Too Perfect
Why Hacker News recommends it
Loved for its zoom-out tour of physical scales and recommended alongside other paper-size and scale-of-the-universe discussions.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2024 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec ProllyInfamous · 2026-01 · on “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 ...
Strong rec ProllyInfamous · 2026-04 · on “God Sleeps in the Minerals”
Zoom out, too: [CGP Grey - Metric Paper] < [this video] > - among my favorite videos Yet even Plancks remain analogue ...
Recommends jihadjihad · 2026-01 · on “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]
Cites xanth · 2024-02 · on “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]
Cites bogtog · 2024-04 · on “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