The TED Interview cover image

Randall Munroe answers your wildest questions

The TED Interview

CHAPTER

The Fermi Estimation

CNN's John Sutter asked the question, has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the earth? He began his answer by talking about what's called the Fermi estimation. That is kind of performing rough order of magnitude calculations almost off the top of your head. "It's far better to have an approximate answer to the right question, which might be vague," he said.

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