this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
575 points (98.5% liked)

Map Enthusiasts

3532 readers
444 users here now

For the map enthused!

Rules:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago (10 children)

Coastlines are indeed fractals, and a similar argument could be made for any border defined by natural phenomena (so like, not the long straight US/Canada border).

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 6 points 3 months ago (8 children)

Coastlines are not self repeating and they are fundamentally finite.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I believe they were referring to this, where technically a coast could be seen as similar to fractals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 11 points 3 months ago

Literally from that page

The coastline paradox is often criticized because coastlines are inherently finite, real features in space, and, therefore, there is a quantifiable answer to their length.[17][19] The comparison to fractals, while useful as a metaphor to explain the problem, is criticized as not fully accurate, as coastlines are not self-repeating and are fundamentally finite.[17]

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)