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by random3 57 days ago
That is the article. There’s no article, just a rehash of the coastline paradox. All while missing most interesting parts. The Wikipedia article is a much better exposition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox).

First, it can’t have an exact length because it’s not a static thing, but a process. Second, as opposed to fractals that can be zoomed in forever, our measurements seem to hit some limits, so the reality is not quite like fractals in this sense.

Of course, it all makes sense if you think about it. What’s perhaps more interesting is we can’t “really measure” anything absolutely and the whole idea of absolute measures becomes rather tricky once you get to physics. In fact it gets philosophical and disputed and you realize that nothing is quite certain, nor quite agreed upon.

I think Quanta Magazine does a good job making justice to these things though.