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Though the question "how long is a piece of string?" clearly has no answer, it could be possible to estimate the mean length of all pieces of string.

It's a very large (and constantly changing) population set. Can anyone suggest a good method of compiling a reasonably representative random sample?

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6 
 Do you have a precise definition of "piece of string"? – S. Carnahan♦ May 3 2010 at 23:07
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 The downvotes are because how to compile a random sample is a question of statistics methodology, rather than of mathematics. – Daniel Moskovich May 4 2010 at 2:59
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 It seems a rather intractable problem without any a priori assumptions on the distribution of lengths of strings. Maybe it has fat tails? The existence of a few extremely long strings could skew the average towards the high end, yet you're likely to miss these in your sample. Analogously, it is often said that you are more likely to be killed by a meteorite than winning the jackpot in the lottery. And yet, many people have won the jackpot, and nobody has been killed by meteor strike. A resolution of the paradox is that one meteor strike can kill millions, but jackpot winners are few by design. – Harald Hanche-Olsen May 4 2010 at 3:06

closed as not a real question by Steve Huntsman, François G. Dorais♦, Reid Barton, fedja, Douglas Zare May 4 2010 at 3:27

1 Answer

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1 meter. Now it only remains to define a meter...

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 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… – Zev Chonoles May 3 2010 at 23:17
and a second is? :-O – Adam Gal May 3 2010 at 23:30
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 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second#International_second I'm voting down your answer for being unhelpful. I too take issue with the problem as stated, but I'm trying to lay out meaningful reasons why - clearly, the main problem is with the definition of "piece of string", not with the definition of "meter" or length in general. Though, if you meant your answer merely in jest, I would be happy to remove the downvote. – Zev Chonoles May 3 2010 at 23:39
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 Grothendieck was quite taken with the question: what is a meter? – Steve Huntsman May 4 2010 at 0:13
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 I agree, it's a interesting question to ask, and I don't think those two links I posted answer it in the slightest, since I also question whether definitions or language have any meaning, whether one can ever have knowledge, and whether the real world exists or not. But, the more pertinent skeptical response (which also happens to provide constructive criticism to the asker about making his questions precise, that is of course if he even exists) is "what is a piece of string", not "what is a meter", and I was simply pointing out that SisterCarrie's answer was the less helpful of the two. – Zev Chonoles May 4 2010 at 0:50
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