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Terence Tao on the cosmic distance ladder

3Blue1Brown · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Cosmology & astrophysicsRecreational & visual math

What it is

Terence Tao and Grant Sanderson of 3Blue1Brown walk through the cosmic distance ladder, showing how humans measured distances from the Earth to the Moon, Sun, planets and beyond. It includes animations and the history behind each step.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as an excellent explanation of how we know cosmic distances.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2025, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “For details, watch the video, it is really good.”

    Explains cosmic distance ladder and geocentrism history.

    GuB-42, 2025-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Undergraduate shows that searches within hash tables can be much faster”

  2. “There is an awesome Terry Tao / 3blue1brown collaboration”

    Collaboration explaining the epistemological basis of measuring cosmic distances.

    adolph, 2026-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Medieval Monks Wrote over Ancient Star Catalog – Particle Accel Reveals Original”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: astronomy, terence tao, 3blue1brown, distance measurement, history of science

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