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[-] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

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 2 months ago

Coastlines are not self repeating and they are fundamentally finite.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 months ago

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 2 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]

[-] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Fractals are not necessarily self repeating, they just contain detail at arbitrarily small scales.

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 1 points 2 months ago

Which a physical space cannot fulfill

[-] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Fractals are not required to be self-repatiing. For example, the Mandelbrot set is a non-self repeating fractal pattern.

And please elaborate on how they are fundamentally finite.

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago

Coastlines exist in the real world, they are by definition finite structures. You can only zoom in to them so far before the structure is no longer a coastline.

[-] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

Thats making a lot of assumptions about quantum physics

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 1 points 2 months ago

An atom is not a coastline, even if it is a piece of one

this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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