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Jun 20, 2018 · Depending on the scale used, the coastline may be larger or smaller. When using a smaller scale, the length of the coastline is larger than that which is measured using a larger scale. Various scientists have studied the phenomenon for several years in a bid to explain the coastline paradox.
Measuring the length of a coastline depends on the scale of the measuring tool. The smaller the scale of your tool, the longer will your measured coastline be. The reason for this is the fractal property of coastlines.
The coastline paradox is the counterintuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well-defined length. This results from the fractal curve –like properties of coastlines; i.e., the fact that a coastline typically has a fractal dimension. Although the "paradox of length" was previously noted by Hugo Steinhaus, [1] the ...
Oct 7, 2016 · You’re victims of the coastline paradox, a tricky mathematical principle that messes with cartographers, stymies government bureaus, and makes it impossible to know exactly how big our world...
- Cara Giaimo
Feb 3, 2024 · It is a paradox that occurs when measuring a coastline that causes the total length of the coastline to increase each time you measure it with a smaller unit of measurement, due to the extra features that can be measured.
Mar 3, 2018 · For example, the coastline of the UK is only 2,800 kilometers long when measured in lengths of 100 kilometers. Shrink that to 50 kilometer measurements and suddenly the coastline is 3,400...
Jan 5, 2022 · Using a scale that is 0.5 Km long, the coastline length has increased from 9 Km to 14 Km. The basic idea we get out of this is the following: While measuring irregular/jagged...
