Coastline paradox
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Coastline paradox
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Re: Coastline paradox
#2Step 1: Acquire small beachfront property
Step 2: Put property on the market, listed as having a mile of beach
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit
There's no way this could backfire, unless the buyer asks how big your ruler is. But a true gentleman never questions the size of another's ruler, so you should be in the clear.
Re: Coastline paradox
#3Related:
Coastline Paradox - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24437749 - Sept 2020 (32 comments)
Coastline Paradox - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21214958 - Oct 2019 (1 comment)
Re: Coastline paradox
#4Step 1: Acquire small beachfront property Step 2: Put property on the market, listed as having a mile of beach Step 3: ??? Step 4: Profit There's no way this could backfire, unless the buyer asks how big your ruler is. But a true gentleman never questions the size of another's ruler, so you should be in the clear.
> There's no way this could backfire, unless the buyer asks how big your ruler is.
Or it goes through a real world court system where judges take very dim views to that level of pedantry...
Re: Coastline paradox
#5Next time you go to measure your waistline, just remember: have you really put on weight, or is it just the coastline paradox?
Re: Coastline paradox
#6It also imples that any border between countries that is defined by a natural border, eg a river is infinitely long, right?
Re: Coastline paradox
#7Next time you go to measure your waistline, just remember: have you really put on weight, or is it just the coastline paradox?
This unfortunately doesn't quite work, because while there's no well defined upper bound, there is a lower bound.
Re: Coastline paradox
#8Step 1: Acquire small beachfront property Step 2: Put property on the market, listed as having a mile of beach Step 3: ??? Step 4: Profit There's no way this could backfire, unless the buyer asks how big your ruler is. But a true gentleman never questions the size of another's ruler, so you should be in the clear.
> There's no way this could backfire, unless the buyer asks how big your ruler is. Or it goes through a real world court system where judges take very dim views to that level of pedantry...
[deleted]
Re: Coastline paradox
#9The coastline paradox relies on the assumption that the coast is equally “jagged” at all levels. Is this actually true? I mean, if I go to the beach and look at the line where the water meets the land it doesn’t really seem like a fractal to me.
The outer boundary of land masses gets smoothed out by erosion from the water, right?
Re: Coastline paradox
#10Are there any definitions of length, or specifically perimeter length, that are more intuitive for comparison purposes, and practical, and actually used, perhaps separating smoothed path length from path roughness?