Coastline — Paradox
If you measure Great Britain with a 100 km ruler, you get a length of about 2,800 km.
A mathematician who first observed the "Richardson effect," noting that border measurements vary based on map scale. Coastline Paradox
The phenomenon was first systematically studied by Lewis Fry Richardson in the 1950s after he noticed that Spain and Portugal reported vastly different lengths for their shared border. It was later popularized by Benoit Mandelbrot , who pioneered the study of fractals. Key Players in the Discovery If you measure Great Britain with a 100