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Terence Tao: The Cosmic Distance Ladder, UCLA

UCLA · lecture · Watch on YouTube

Cosmology & astrophysicsUniversity lectures & courses

What it is

Terence Tao's AMS Einstein Public Lecture at UCLA on the cosmic distance ladder, the chain of methods astronomers use to measure distances from the Earth to distant galaxies. It is aimed at a general audience.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as an accessible and elegant tour of how indirect reasoning builds up cosmic measurements, with one commenter calling it their favorite Tao work.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2022, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Tao’s oft given talk about the cosmic distance ladder has always been my favorite thing he has done.”

    Tao's cosmic distance ladder talk is the commenter's favorite of his work.

    mathladder, 2025-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Terence Tao on how we measure the cosmos, Part 1 [video]”

  2. “Nice video about the cosmic distance ladder by Terence Tao”

    Nice video about the cosmic distance ladder.

    luc4sdreyer, 2024-03 · Recommendation · in “Webb and Hubble confirm Universe's expansion rate”

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

Topics: astronomy, parallax, terence tao, measurement, public lecture

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