Serious question about infinity

[Bushmaster]

Right, the coastline - any given coastline. It's all inlets and jaggedy outcrops and beaches, right?

So I measure it to see how long it is. Point A to point B. Right, that's about a mile in a straight line. But the coastline is not straight. So I measure it again, taking account of all the ins and outs. Three miles. OK, but now I look closely at the coast and see that each in and each out is made up of smallers ins and outs. I measure them. 12 miles. I get a magnifying glass and examine each mini in and each mini out. Guess what, they've got their own ins and outs. 68 miles. And so on, right down to microscopic level. Thousands of miles. And even smaller. Millions of miles and so on to a fractal-shaped infinity. So, the coastline from A to B is infinity long.

Yet I can jog it - an infinite distance - in 9 minutes. WTF is that all about?

[camgear]

I wouldn't be infinity though would it, it'd just be a really really big number...

[Somewhatfoolish]

1) Don't read Mandelbrot when stoned.
2) It's a model anyway. After all the coastline is discrete due to atoms and such
3) When you jog it you are jogging a smoothed coastline which has finite length

[KANEIT]

But you've not followed that precise path, you've skipped bits.
Either that or it's worm holes.

[Rob.]

Re: Cam gear

But if this calculation was expanded around, say, the whole of the British Isles, then would we not reach infinity instead of just a big number?

Edited by Rob. on Friday 20th March 18:04

[V8mate]

A mile-long beach is a mile long.

HTH

[Bushmaster]

KANEIT said:

But you've not followed that precise path, you've skipped bits.
Either that or it's worm holes.

So I have jumped over an infinite distance? That's pretty cool.

[mechsympathy]

Bushmaster said:

Yet I can jog it - an infinite distance - in 9 minutes. WTF is that all about?

YOu're slightly bigger than the average sub-atomic particle

[SystemParanoia]

Bushmaster said:

Yet I can jog it - an infinite distance - in 9 minutes. WTF is that all about?

i know! 9mins.. pull your finger out man, i can walk it faster!

[Merc fan]

It's not an infinitessimal distance but it could take you an infinitessimal time to measure it as you can always go slower without stopping.

[KANEIT]

Bushmaster said:

KANEIT said:

But you've not followed that precise path, you've skipped bits.
Either that or it's worm holes.

So I have jumped over an infinite distance? That's pretty cool.

You've skipped over an amount of matter that if broken up and aligned particle by particle end on end would be of an infinite length - but it's not arranged as such!

Heroes is fiction BTW OR you better keep moving they're after you!

[DrTre]

it's not infinite, you're just measuring the same distance with ever increasing precision.

[sstein]

If you have a mile long road to walk. On the first step you move 0.5 miles. The second step you move forward 0.25 miles, then 0.125 miles, 0.0625m etc etc and keep moving half the distance you moved before. You will never reach the end.

That's wierd!

-

Stuart

[Martial Arts Man]

Rob. said:

Re: Cam gear

But if this calculation was expanded around, say, the whole of the British Isles, then would we not reach infinity instead of just a big number?

Edited by Rob. on Friday 20th March 18:04

Just a bigger number I'm afraid.

[fido]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Long_Is_the_Coast...

[Bushmaster]

DrTre said:

it's not infinite, you're just measuring the same distance with ever increasing precision.

No the distance gets much longer as you measure more of the detail.

[DrTre]

Bushmaster said:

DrTre said:

it's not infinite, you're just measuring the same distance with ever increasing precision.

No the distance gets much longer as you measure more of the detail.

Yeah, sorry that was crap wording.
Ever increasing spatial precision/resolution is more what I meant and even that's wrong.
Am off out now, I'm sure I'll be much better placed to explain myself after a few drinks...ha!

[Snoggledog]

You'll get to a point when you won't be able to measure anymore because you can't measure each quark. (Actually, you'd die of old age before you've managed 50m metres worth.)If you manage to add it all up it'll be a huge number but won't be infinity.

[Balmoral Green]

Just jog along the top of the junction, instead of going all the way down the cul-de-sac and then coming back up on the other side.

[Silent1]

If you coil a million miles of rope into a mile long oval and then run from one end to the other you've not run a million miles have you.