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Next time you go to measure your waistline, just remember: have you really put on weight, or is it just the coastline paradox?
by justinl33 3y ago
Next time you go to measure your waistline, just remember: have you really put on weight, or is it just the coastline paradox?
- margalabargala 3y agoThis unfortunately doesn't quite work, because while there's no well defined upper bound, there is a lower bound.
- justinl33 3y agotrue, but you could just argue that any increase was just a result of over-estimating the last time you measured
- margalabargala 3y agoThe lower bound is generally very easy to measure precisely. So a change in that would be immediately noticed. For example, how long is the North Carolina coastline? No idea. But we can measure the precise distance between the point where that state's border with South Carolina meets the ocean, and the point where the border with Virginia meets the ocean. The coastline must be at least this long. And if you measure your waistline, you can draw a cord around your midsection with some known amount of force. Your true waistline may be larger, but it is at least that large. And if that number increases...well, we're in a period of relatively high inflation already, what's one more thing?
- TylerE 3y agoMuch more complcated problem than you're implying as NC has no unbroken coast. It's all shoals and barrier islands - and when you're inside that, swampland.
- dotancohen 3y agoThat does not affect the lower bound as described.
- margalabargala 3y agoUnbroken coastline, shoals, barrier islands, etc, are all unrelated and irrelevant to the lower bound. For example, the lower bound of the coastline of Canada is the straight-line distance from White Rock to Saint Andrew.
- dtgriscom 3y ago... fractal hips?
- justinl33 3y ago'Doc, my hips have finite volume but infinite surface area.'
- denzil 3y agoOf course, if you are using tape to measure your weight, you are using the wrong tool for the job.
- paulryanrogers 3y agoWhy?
- remram 3y agoInterestingly there is no paradox for convex shapes, like measuring tape forms.