The Coastline Paradox
How long is the coastline of Britain? The answer depends on how you measure it. As the ruler gets shorter, the answer grows without bound.
1951 (Richardson), 1967 (Mandelbrot)7 min read
Polish-French-American mathematics
Benoit Mandelbrot
1924 – 2010
Mathematician who created the field of fractal geometry. His 1967 paper "How Long Is the Coast of Britain?" — a direct response to Lewis Fry Richardson's observations — introduced the idea that coastlines and similar irregular curves have no well-defined length and can be characterised by a non-integer fractal dimension. He went on to show that fractals appear throughout nature: in snowflakes, lightning bolts, mountain ranges, and financial markets. The Mandelbrot set, the most famous object in fractal geometry, bears his name.