wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Did not shoot Diversity - But I did
Bjørn K Nilssen 2009-Mar-27 22:08:00
On 27 Mar 2009 at 21:36, Fotoverkstan/Jakob Norstedt-M wrote:
> Hans Nyberg wrote:
> >Well perhaps we should talk about the total coastline of Denmark.
> >
> >39330+7314= 46664 including Greenland which also belongs to Denmark.
> >
> >Oh sorry I forgot Faraoe Islands + 1117
> >
> >Total 47761 km
> >
> >That makes it No 3 in the world
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_length_of_coastline
>
> Your link to wikipedia states:
> ----------------
> "The coastline paradox states that a coastline has no single fixed
> length. "
> ...
> "Note that the scales at which the CIA World Factbook figures were
> measured are not stated, nor is it known whether the figures are all
> reported using the same scale. The figures are not necessarily
> comparable across different countries."
> ----------------
> This disussion is completely meningless. The figures simply are not
> comparable.
Yes, it is completely meaningless unless all are measured in the same way, including
islands.
If a country like the Phillipines, Indonesia or Japan was measured without islands (like
they did with Norway in that list) there wouldn't be much left ;)
http://www.holtenk.com/norges_kyst.html is an interesting article about the fractal
nature of coastlines (in Norwegian, unfortunately - but here is a (pretty bad) Google
translation: http://tinyurl.com/d93dcs ).
It concludes with:
"Conclusion: Coastal lengths can not decide. For practical purposes, one can set lengths,
but you must then inform the scale that has been used. However, one can calculate how
complex a coastal stretch is, in which a high degree within the planet."
But it is still fun discussing though ;)
A classic example of apples and oranges.
--
Bj?rn K Nilssen - http://bknilssen.no - panoramas and 3D