Wikipedia Trails

I love Wikipedia. I know it is not an academically accepted source of information and can be changed by anybody with a computer and Internet connection. In fact, Wikipedia itself says it is not a creditable source. However, it presents information in such a uniform and (usually) easy to read fashion that I often catch myself reading for an hour or more.

Just came up with the term "Wikipedia Trails" to describe the trail of links to get from one topic to another. Let me know in the comments if there is a more established term for this.

For me, the best kind of trails are those that start off with an innocent Google search on some random tidbit I'm unsure on and, through a labyrinth of indeterminate length, ends up with me going over a wiki page covered in hardcore mathematics. I have done it so many times that I'm pretty sure I could find a trail linking any topic with some kind of math law or something of that nature.

Some might call reading Wikipedia for hours merely learning about useless facts, but I consider it one of the purest forms of learning. It is learning without requirement, without bounds (other than time), and without direction. You never know where you will end up; it is sort of an adventure. Learning for the sake of learning.

If you think about it, it really shows how complex and simplistic the world is. Complex because there is so much stuff to learn about; simplistic since most everything can be boiled down to a few underlying principles.