inclined they could put out a request for pieces of string and then measure them and plot the results, which would give a graph somewhat similar to the type of thing I can guess. It's not easy to express such an answer to the question "how long is a piece of string" as a direct word-based answer, but a good approximation would be: "the length of a piece of string is usually about 4ft +/- 3ft". Of course it's not a perfect answer, and the distribution would have a characteristic which is spread differentially either side of the most likely length. This type of thing is not as uncommon as you might think, for example electronic components are specified as their nominal value +/- 10% or 20%, and colloquial terms such as "faster than a speeding bullet" have an element of expressiveness which often convey more than the statistical figure. Anyone care for a thesis? 1. Collect random pieces of string in a university string donations box. 2. produce a statistical survey. 3. profit? (there's a link in it for you, at least. write in) Meanwhile, question answering here goes quite well. Questions such as how logarithms work , what's the density of mercury , how do you hypnotise a chicken , and how to save money , are answered here. Although I can't promise to answer everyone's questions individually, if you ask a really good question there's a good chance the question and answer will become a page here!