Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Coastline Paradox

What is the length of the coastline of Great Britain?

If you'd ask the Ordnance Survey (the mapping authority for the United Kingdom), they might give you a number of 11,073 miles (17,820 km). That's all well and good, but what does this number actually mean?

If I said the coastline had an infinite length, would I be wrong?