Recently a lot of videos have popped Up for me claiming that you can’t accurately measure the coastline of a landmass cause the smaller of a “ruler” you use, the longer of a measure you get due to the smaller nooks and crannies you have to measure but i don’t get how this is a mathematical problem and not an “of course i won’t measure every single pebble on the coastline down to atom size” problem”. I get that you can’t measure a fractal’s side length, but a coastline is not a fractal
In: Mathematics
Hold up your fingers in front of your face with them held together.
Trace along the from the bottom of your pinky to the bottom of your index finger.
That’s one interval of measure.
Now do the same, but trace along the tiny gaps between your fingers.
That’s a different, more precise interval of measure.
With the larger interval, the small gaps between your fingers are too large to be measurable, with the smaller interval, the gaps becomes measurable and therefore add the total distance between each of your fingers.
That’s the issue with measuring coastline’s, the more precision you try to use the smaller features you have to measure and the greater total “distance” you get.
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