8 Paradoxes Guaranteed To Melt Your Mind

6. The Coastline Paradox

Did you know that no one can agree on how long the Great British coastline is? Or the Australian one. Or any coastline for that matter.

This isn't just a silly philosophical debate either, it's a real-life problem. For example, estimates for the length of the Australian coastline can vary from 12,500km to 25,700km - that's more than double.

Itis because the length of a coastline depends on the method you use to measure it and this is to do with the fractalnature of a coastline. A fractal is basically a never-ending pattern that infinitely repeats at every scale, they occur both in mathematics and in the natural world.

Basically, a coastline has measurable features at every scale, from 500km in length right down to fractions of nanometres. This means that the correct answer to, "How long is the coastline?" is, "It depends". This is also not helped by the fact that very small features of a coastline are not usually permanent.

This is counterintuitive toour ideas about definite and relative values and creates a paradox between what is reality and what we can observe.