[HN Gopher] How Long Is the Coast of Britain? (1967)
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How Long Is the Coast of Britain? (1967)
Author : Hooke
Score : 27 points
Date : 2026-02-24 23:14 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.jstor.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.jstor.org)
| 2b3a51 wrote:
| https://gsp.humboldt.edu/OLM/courses/GSP_510/Articles/Mandel...
|
| Link to a pdf file that you don't need an institutional login
| for.
|
| I did an activity in a basic maths class based on this paper
| years ago. Each student had an A3 map of the main island of the
| UK. Some set their compasses to 5cm radius and counted the number
| of radii around the island. Others tried 2.5cm, and 1cm and half
| a cm. Worked ok, good lesson.
| paradox460 wrote:
| Infinitely long. You can't trick me with the coast paradox
| theodric wrote:
| This guy* Mandelbrots
|
| *presumably, but maybe not
| _ache_ wrote:
| Actually ... Not infinitely long. You wont have a precise value
| since each measure can be increased by taking a smaller "step"
| or "ruler", but it won't be infinite.
| saghm wrote:
| Unbounded, at least. If you give me a measurement, I can give
| you a larger one that's more precise.
| tiku wrote:
| Depends on your measurements. If you measure with 1 cm it is
| longer than if measure with 10 cm.
| ck2 wrote:
| ah the coastline paradox
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
|
| where the sampling rate affects distance measured
|
| this is also why the GPS on your watch will reports different
| distances the more frequently it samples, ie. once per second vs
| once per every few seconds, think curves becoming diagonal lines
|
| it's also why they measure official distances using a wheel on a
| stick
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