Meaning of the phrase "How long is a piece of string?"

Posted by Barney on July 24, 2000

In Reply to: Meaning of the phrase "How long is a piece of string?" posted by patricia on July 24, 2000

: Hello,

: Can you please tell me the meaning of the phrase "How long is a piece of string?" when put into context of the question "How much do you miss me?"

: Thank you so much.

: Patricia

Intrinsically a piece of string has length but that length is unknown hence the
the phrase 'how long is a piece of string' means that the quantitative answer is not known and there is an implicate understanding that the answer will be difficult to find given the information available.