What is the coastline paradox?

Answer 1

The measure of the length of a coastline depends on the level of detail at which the measuring is done.

For example: if you measure the coastline of a roughly circular island, at a low level of detail, where little ins and outs along the coastline are ignored, the length will be shorter than if you measure every in and out at a fine level of detail, because each of these little ins and outs adds to the length. The closer or finer you measure, the longer the measurement. This is called the "coastline paradox".

Answer 2

The coastline paradox refers to the observation that the measured length of a coastline is dependent on the scale at which it is measured. As the measuring scale decreases, such as using a smaller ruler, the coastline length increases due to the increased level of detail captured. This concept highlights the fractal nature of Coastlines and the limitations of traditional measurements of length.