What Is The Coastline Paradox?
How long is the coastline of Australia? One estimate is that it's about 12500 km long. However the CIA world factbook puts the figure at more than double this, at over 25700 km. How can there...
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I've been driving along Australia's famous Great Ocean Road.And I'm stopped here near the Twelve Apostles, which are these big sandstone bluffs.Actually, there's only eight of them left because the others have eroded over time.And erosion is really what's given us this coastline the way it looks now.So that brings to mind a question for me.Which is "How long is the Australian coast line?"Well, if you were to measure it out in lengths of 500 kilometers,You would find that it's about 12 and a half thousand kilometers long.But the CIA World Factbook puts the figure at more than double that. Over 25,700 kilometers.But how can it be that we have two different estimates for the length of the same coastline?We...
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I've been driving along Australia's famous Great Ocean Road.And I'm stopped here near the Twelve Apostles, which are these big sandstone bluffs.Actually, there's only eight of them left because the others have eroded over time.And erosion is really what's given us this coastline the way it looks now.So that brings to mind a question for me.Which is "How long is the Australian coast line?"Well, if you were to measure it out in lengths of 500 kilometers,You would find that it's about 12 and a half thousand kilometers long.But the CIA World Factbook puts the figure at more than double that. Over 25,700 kilometers.But how can it be that we have two different estimates for the length of the same coastline?We...
