The word counterintuitive literally means counter to intuition, and so it essentially means that something does not seem right or correct. A counterintuitive proposition is one that does not seem likely to be truth true when assessed using Intuition knowledge intuition or gut feelings. ref http dictionary.reference.com browse counter intuitive Counterintuitive adjective . Counter to what intuition would lead one to expect The direction we had to follow was counterintuitive we had to go north first before we went south. Retrieved 09 NOV 2010. ref Scientifically discovered, Objectivity science objective truths are often called counterintuitive when intuition, emotions , and other cognitive processes outside of deductive rationality interpret them to be wrong. However, the subjective nature of intuition limits the objectivity of what to call counterintuitive because what is counter intuitive for one may be intuitive for another. This might occur in instances where intuition changes with knowledge. For instance, many aspects of quantum mechanics may sound counterintuitive to a layman, while ... productive behavior with Unintended consequences undesirable outcomes . In some such cases, counterintuitive ... to be contrary to common sense. Another counterintuitive scientific idea concerns spaceflight ... http www.freshbrainz.com 2009 12 counterintuitive science fast speed fat.html Fresh Brainz . Counterintuitive ... space, time, mass, and energy with a counterintuitive four dimensional non Euclidean universe. ref .... ref Examples Some further counterintuitive examples are Wave particle duality photoelectric effect ... SA 1989 http www.jstor.org pss 27540341 Comprehension of counterintuitive science text Effects ... JW 1971 http citeseerx.ist.psu.edu viewdoc download?doi 10.1.1.35.4776&rep rep1&type pdf Counterintuitive ... solutions to counterintuitive conundrums Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691131313 Norenzayan ...&rep rep1&type pdf The cultural selection of minimally counterintuitive narratives Cognitive ... more details
Orphan date June 2008 Notability date September 2009 Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems is a paper by Jay Forrester . In it, Forrester gives a concise explanation of how flame wars start. The mental model is fuzzy. It is incomplete. It is imprecisely stated. Furthermore, within one individual, a mental model changes with time and even during the flow of a single conversation. The human mind assembles a few relationships to fit the context of a discussion. As the subject shifts so does the model. When only a single topic is being discussed, each participant in a conversation employs a different mental model to interpret the subject. Fundamental assumptions differ but are never brought into the open. Goals are different and are left unstated. It is little wonder that compromise takes so long. And it is not surprising that consensus leads to laws and programs that fail in their objectives or produce new difficulties greater than those that have been relieved. Forrester s work with complex systems has potential applications to semiotics , artificial intelligence , and the semantic web . External links http sysdyn.clexchange.org sdep Roadmaps RM1 D 4468 2.pdf Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems pdf http citeseerx.ist.psu.edu viewdoc summary?doi 10.1.1.35.4776 Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems by Jay W. Forrester 1995 at CiteSeerX. Download ftp sysdyn.mit.edu ftp sdep Roadmaps RM1 D 4468 1.pdf DEFAULTSORT Counterintuitive Behavior Of Social Systems Category Semantic Web ... more details
, Lincolnshire IPA dn m Borderline counterintuitive, given the ham note Edinburgh , Scotland ... of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations L 2 Leominster, Massachusetts below Liskeard ... s lzbri s lz br or s lz br Sanquhar , Dumfries and Galloway IPA s nk r Maybe not counterintuitive ... London IPA t tn m Maybe not counterintuitive enough given the header note on ham and a swallowed schwa ... IPA wa t m w t m Y Yeavering , Northumberland IPA j v ri Borderline counterintuitive, given ... more details
Fetherstonhaugh IPAc en icon f n can refer to Places Fetherstonhaugh Baronets People Godfrey Fetherstonhaugh Harold Lea Fetherstonhaugh Robert Fetherstonhaugh Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, 1st Baronet See also List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations disambig surname ... more details
Bad Behaviour may refer to Bad behaviour , in mathematics, properties atypically bad or counterintuitive Bad Behaviour , 1993 British comedy film Bad Behaviour song Bad Behaviour song , by Jedward Bad Behaviour Tour , by Jedward disambig ... more details
Cholmondeley IPAc en icon t m l i can refer to Places Cholmondeley, Cheshire , a village in Cheshire Cholmondeley Castle People Alice Cholmondeley, a pseudonym used by Elizabeth von Arnim for her book Christine David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley b. 1960 , the Lord Great Chamberlain of England Lionel Berners Cholmondeley 1858 1945 , British missionary in Japan and historian Mary Cholmondeley 1859 1925 , an English writer Thomas Cholmondeley disambiguation various Other family name of Earl of Leinster Marquess of Cholmondeley Baron Delamere The Cholmondeleys , an all female modern dance group, founded by the choreographer Lea Anderson The Cholmondeley Award s for poetry, given annually by the Society of Authors Lord Cholmondeley , a minor character in the The Transformers A chimpanzee brought from Africa by Gerald Durrell See also List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations disambig surname de Cholmondeley ... more details
A photonic chip uses light instead of electricity and is being developed for the production of ultra fast quantum computers with capabilities far beyond today s devices. The Financial Times stated that with the chip data can be processed according to the counterintuitive rules of quantum physics that allow individual subatomic particle s to be in several places at the same time and that Future quantum computers will, for example, be able to pull important information out of the biggest databases almost instantaneously. ref Clive Cookson http www.ft.com cms s 0 8c0a68b0 c1bc 11df 9d90 00144feab49a.html Computers set for quantum leap September 16, 2010 Financial Times ref See also Photonics Silicon photonics Photonic integrated circuit Optical switch Timeline of quantum computing References Reflist Category Photonics ... more details
wiktionary pathology Pathology Greek for pathos , suffering and logia, Research study of is a medical field specializing in the categorization of diseases. Pathological is the adjective form of the term. Pathology may also refer to In science Anatomic pathology , the study of macro and microscopic abnormalities in tissues Clinical pathology , medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the laboratory analysis of bodily fluids, such as blood, urine Speech pathology , the area of rehabilitative medicine that treats of speech or swallowing impediments Psychopathology , any illness of the mind Phytopathology , the study of abnormalities in plants Pathological mathematics , any mathematical phenomenon considered atypically bad or counterintuitive Pathological science , a process by which the scientific process is distorted through wishful thinking or subjective bias Arts and works Pathology band , a death metal band Pathology film , a 2008 film Pathologic , a 2005 video game disambig pt Patologia desambigua o ... more details
refimproveBLP date October 2009 Mark Bils December 1, 1958 is a macroeconomics macroeconomist at the University of Rochester . ref cite web url http www.npr.org templates story story.php?storyId 5568606 title Shopping for the Consumer Price Index date 19 July 2006 publisher NPR accessdate 9 May 2011 ref Bils obtained his PhD in economics from MIT in 1985 and BA in economics from Ohio State University in 1979. He has taught at the University of Chicago GSB and is currently professor and chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Rochester. In 1987, Bils published The Cyclical Behavior of Marginal Cost and Price in the American Economic Review where he argued that marginal cost is procyclical . This is driven from the counterintuitive fact that employment is high when wages are high. Thus, Bils argues, an increase untrained Labour economics labor must increase marginal costs in the same way an increase in demand increases wages . He is in the top 5 of most cited economists. References Reflist Persondata Metadata see Wikipedia Persondata . NAME Bils, Mark ALTERNATIVE NAMES SHORT DESCRIPTION DATE OF BIRTH PLACE OF BIRTH DATE OF DEATH PLACE OF DEATH DEFAULTSORT Bils, Mark Category American economists Category Macroeconomists Category University of Rochester faculty Category Living people US economist stub ... more details
The Petkau effect is an early counterexample to linear effect assumptions usually made about radiation exposure. It was found by Dr. Abram Petkau at the Atomic Energy of Canada Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment , Manitoba and published in cite Health Physics cite March 1972. Petkau had been measuring, in the usual way, the dose that would rupture a particular cell membrane . He found that 3500 rad unit rad s delivered in 2¼ hours 26 rad min 15.5 Sv h would do it. Then, almost by chance, he tried again with much weaker radiation and found that 0.7 rads delivered in 11½ hours 1 millirad min 0.61 mSv h would also destroy the membrane. This was counter to the prevailing assumption of a linear relationship between total dose or dose rate and the consequences. ref Djurovic, Branka, MD, PhD, Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation , Slide 15, Military Medical Academy Serbia Military Medical Academy, Belgrade, Serbia ref The radiation was of ionizing nature, and produced negative oxygen ion s. Those ions were more damaging to the membrane in lower concentration s than higher a somewhat counterintuitive result in itself because in the latter, they more readily recombine with each other instead of interfering with the membrane. The ion concentration directly correlated with the radiation dose rate and the composition had non monotonic logic non monotonic consequences. References reflist Radiation Category Radiobiology Category Article Feedback 5 ja pl Efekt Petkau ru ... more details
Image Forks WA Kalaloch Lodge Inlet.jpg thumb 350px right Kalaloch Creek flowing into the Pacific Ocean at Kalaloch. Kalaloch IPAc en icon k l e l k is an unincorporated area unincorporated community in western Jefferson County, Washington Jefferson County , Washington U.S. state Washington , United States . The community is a resort on the bluffs just off of Highway 101 on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington U.S. state Washington overlooking the Pacific Ocean . A number of log cabin s provide accommodations, as does the Kalaloch Campground . Kalaloch is entirely within Olympic National Park . Several beach trails lead to coastal hikes and Kalaloch Creek. The name Kalaloch is a corruption of the Quinault people Quinault term k E le ok , pronounced Kq l k, meaning a good place to land , canoe launch and landing , or sheltered landing . The site was one of the few safe landing sites for dugout canoes between the Quinault River and Hoh River. ref name parratt cite book last Parratt first Smitty title Gods & goblins A Field Guide to Place Names of Olympic National Park year 1984 publisher CP Publications isbn 0 914195 00 X page 78 ref See also List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations References Reflist External links http www.visitkalaloch.com VisitKalaloch.com Jefferson County, Washington jeffersonWA geo stub coord 47 36 16 N 124 22 15 W city display title Category Unincorporated communities in Washington state Category Populated places in Jefferson County, Washington es Kalaloch Washington vo Kalaloch ... more details
Origins Lists of English words of international origin loanwords Errors List of frequently misused English words List of English words with disputed usage Characteristics Most common words in English List of the longest English words with one syllable List of English words without rhymes wikt Appendix English words with diacritics and English words with diacritics Case sensitive English words Capitonym List of self contradicting words in English American British differences American and British English differences List of American words not widely used in the United Kingdom List of British words not widely used in the United States List of words having different meanings in British and American English Word categorization schemes Basic English includes list of the 850 core words List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names Pronunciation List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations List of English words without rhymes Words and expressions subsets of Parts of Speech Auxiliary verb Irregular verb List of collective nouns Word length List of all two letter combinations three letter acronym Three letter abbreviation Three letter vowel less English word Four letter word Longest word in English Slang List of internet slang Expression language Expressions List of slogans List of state mottos List of ethnic slurs List of kennings List of genericized trademark s Category English language ... more details
Inertance is a measure of the pressure gradient in a fluid required to cause a change in flow rate with time. The unit of inertance is Pa m sup 3 sup s sup 2 sup and the usual symbol is I . For a circular tube the inertance is given by math I rho cdot ell over A , math where is the density in units of kg m sup 3 sup of the fluid is the length in units of meters of the tube A is the cross sectional area in units of m sup 2 sup of the tube The pressure gradient is related to the change in flow rate by the equation math Delta p I cdot dot Q I cdot dQ over dt math To some it may appear counterintuitive that an increase in cross sectional area of a tube reduces the inertance of the tube. However, for the same mass flow rate, a lower cross sectional area implies a higher fluid velocity and therefore a higher pressure gradient to accelerate the fluid. The equation assumes constant density, that all parts of the fluid undergo the same acceleration and that the flow is fully developed turbulent plug flow . This precludes sharp bends, water hammer and so on. In respiratory physiology Inertance of air is measured in cmH sub 2 sub O L sup 1 sup s sup 2 sup . 1 cmH sub 2 sub O L sup 1 sup s sup 2 sup 98100 Pa m sup 3 sup s sup 2 sup . Using small signal analysis, an inertance can be represented as a fluid reactance through the relation math X j omega I math where math omega 2 pi f math math f math is the frequency in Hz. References cite book author Massey, B.S. title Mechanics of Fluids year 1989 publisher Chapman & Hall id ISBN 0412342804 Category Fluid mechanics ro Inertan ... more details
because it is counterintuitive or has other disturbing consequences. Given a philosopher s currently ... of moral luck may seem counterintuitive or even unreasonable to some, so this statement of acceptance ... more details
Dan Bilefsky is a New York based Metro reporter for the New York Times . Until recently, he was the Prague based east and central Europe correspondent for The Times and the International Herald Tribune . ref cite web url http www.worldhum.com features travel interviews dan bilefsky telling counterintuitive stories from the edge of europe 20080 title Dan Bilefsky Telling Counterintuitive Stories From the Edge of Europe ref Biography Born in Montreal , Quebec , Canada , Bilefsky was formerly the Times Brussels bureau chief. A graduate of Oxford University and the University of Pennsylvania , Bilefsky has also worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times and has been a correspondent based in New York, London, Paris and Prague. As a roving correspondent, Bilefsky has written on many subjects, from honor killings in Turkey to bullfighting in Portugal and the hunt for the Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic in the Balkans. ref cite news url http www.nytimes.com 2005 12 29 world europe 29iht hahaha.html?scp 1&sq Bilefsky 20and 20laughing&st cse title Laughing schools in Germany to teach depressed Germans how to laugh work The New York Times first Dan last Bilefsky date 2005 12 30 ref ref cite news url http www.nytimes.com 2007 02 08 world europe 08iht viagra.4525587.html?scp 1&sq Bilefsky 20and 20viagra&st cse title A Viagra craze in Spain work The New York Times first Dan last Bilefsky date 2007 02 08 ref ref cite news url http www.nytimes.com 2006 07 16 world europe 16turkey.html?scp 1&sq Bilefsky 20and 20turkey 20and 20honor 20killings&st cse work The New York Times title How to Avoid Honor Killing in Turkey? Honor Suicide first Dan last Bilefsky date July 16, 2006 ref ref cite news url http www.nytimes.com 2007 08 12 world europe 12portugal.html?scp 1&sq Bilefsky 20and 20bull 20fighting&st cse title Matador Wins. Bull Dies. The End? Not in Portugal work The New York Times first Dan last Bilefsky date August 12, 2007 ref But his wor ... more details
Mergeto Mutually assured destruction date September 2009 About the Cold War policy the Star Trek episode Balance of Terror The phrase balance of terror is usually used in reference to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War . It describes the tenuous peace that existed between the two countries as a result of both governments being terrified at the prospect of a world destroying Nuclear warfare nuclear war . The term is usually used for rhetorical purposes, and was probably coined by Lester Pearson in June 1955 at the 10th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter the balance of terror has replaced the balance of power . Some political scientists use this phrase as a means of differentiating the world situation that followed World War II from that which preceded it. Previously, empire s had prevented war between each other by maintaining a relative balance of their ability economic, military, and political to wage war against each other the phrase balance of power in international relations balance of power was often used to describe this kind of tentative peace. The atomic bomb created a new political reality, in which two superpower s had the ability to destroy all of human civilization. The obstacle to war between the communism communists and capitalism capitalists was no longer the fear that the other side was more powerful, but rather the realization that nuclear arsenals were now large enough and deadly enough that winning would still likely result in the destruction of one s country and the rest of the world as well . In this counterintuitive way, the existence of the most powerful weapons ever created actually supported a kind of peace while many wars were fought around the world during the Cold War, the superpowers never fought each other directly, nor have atomic bombs been dropped in combat since Nagasaki, Nagasaki Nagasaki . Uses John F. Kennedy used the phrase in his 1961 inaugural address , when he de ... more details
Infobox book name What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News image Image What Liberal Media.jpg 200px image caption author Eric Alterman country series subject Media bias publisher Basic Books pub date 2003 english pub date media type pages 322 isbn 9780465001774 oclc What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News is a book by columnist Eric Alterman that challenges the widespread conservative belief in a liberal media bias . Alterman argues that the media, as a whole, is not biased liberally, but conservatively. Critical response The Los Angeles Times called the book, A well documented, even tempered and witty answer, I might say antidote, to such toxic recent bestsellers as Bernard Goldberg s Bias book Bias. Ted Widmer of the New York Times Book Review said What Liberal Media is bold, counterintuitive and cathartic . ref cite news first Ted last Widmer authorlink Edward L. Widmer title The Wayward Media date 2003 03 16 url http www.nytimes.com 2003 03 16 books 016WIDMET.html work New York Times Book Review accessdate 2010 09 23 Dead link date October 2010 bot H3llBot ref The New Yorker said of the book, A polemic is nothing without passion , and Alterman s argumentative vigor is engaging and ... the meticulous care with which his arguments are sourced and footnoted is in commendable contrast to the efforts of some of his more fire breathing opponents. ref http www.whatliberalmedia.com WhatLiberalMedia.com Dead link url http www.whatliberalmedia.com date September 2010 official website ref The conservative American Spectator said of the book, Alterman s leaky little launch took on way too much water in the first chapter. But don t miss the last pages, in which he theorizes mirroring right wing pamphleteers of the John Birch Society Birch persuasion that the media reflexively follow the dictates of a powerful cabal of conservative activists and misanthropic millionaires ... ref http www.complete review.com reviews media alterme.htm Reviews , Comple ... more details
no references date December 2010 Infobox person name Mihail Cristodulo Cerchez image image size 200 caption birth date birth date 1839 06 08 df y birth place B rlad , Romania death date death date and age 1885 07 12 1839 06 08 df y death place Ia i , Romania body discovered death cause resting place Eternitatea cemetery of Ia i monuments nationality citizenship Romanian known for Romanian officer gained fame for fighting against the Turks. On 28 November 1877 in Pleven Castle, Osman Nuri Pa a Osman Pasha surrendered his sword to him when he capitulated. File MMihail Cristodulo Cerchez1.jpg thumb right 200 px Grave of General Mihail Cerchez in Ia i . Mihail Cristodulo Cerchez 1839 1885 was a Romanian general descended from an old Moldavian family of Armenian origin. Rumours that he was of Circassian descent are based strictly on his family name cerchez is the Romanian word for Circassian and are counterintuitive to his firmly anti Turkish stance. He led Romanian troops in the Romanian War of Independence 1877 in Grivi a, Bucov, Opanez , Smardan, Pleven , Vidin . Cerchez was a colonel in the Romanian Army when he gained fame for fighting against the Turkish Army in the Balkans. On 28 November 1877 in Pleven Castle, Osman Nuri Pa a Osman Pasha surrendered and gave him his sword. Out of gratitude for his efforts, in Romania , the 85th Logistics Support Battalion for the 8th Mixed Artillery Brigade Romania 8th Mixed artillery brigade was named General Mihail Cerchez As a gratitude for his efforts toward the independence of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian people built a bust in the Romanian Soldier Mausoleum at Grivitsa . Persondata Metadata see Wikipedia Persondata . NAME Cerchez, Mihail Cristodulo ALTERNATIVE NAMES SHORT DESCRIPTION DATE OF BIRTH 8 June 1839 PLACE OF BIRTH B rlad , Romania DATE OF DEATH 12 July 1885 PLACE OF DEATH Ia i , Romania DEFAULTSORT Cerchez, Mihail Cristodulo Category 1839 births Category 1885 deaths Category 19th century Romanian people Category People ... more details
A false etymology pseudoetymology , paraetymology or paretymology is a popularly held but false belief about the origins of specific words, especially where these originate in common sense assumptions rather than serious research. Such etymology etymologies often have the feel of urban legend s, and can be much more colorful than the typical etymologies found in dictionaries, often involving stories of unusual practices in particular subcultures e.g. Oxford students from non noble families being forced to write sine nobilis by their name, soon abbreviated to s.nob. , hence the word Wikt snob snob . Citation needed date March 2011 Many recent examples are based on acronym s or backronym s . Citation needed date March 2011 Source and influence of false etymologies Erroneous etymologies can exist for many reasons. Some are reasonable interpretations of the evidence that happen to be false. For a given word there may often have been many serious attempts by scholars to propose etymologies based on the best information available at the time, and these can be later modified or rejected as linguistic scholarship advances. The results of medieval etymology , for example, were plausible given the insights available at the time, but have mostly Citation needed date August 2009 been rejected by modern linguists. The etymologies of Humanism humanist scholars in the early modern period began to produce more reliable results, but many of their hypotheses have been superseded. Even today, knowledge in the field advances so rapidly that many of the etymologies in contemporary dictionaries are outdated. Association with urban legends Some etymologies are part of urban legend s, and seem to respond to a general taste for the surprising, counterintuitive and even scandalous. One common example has to do with the phrase rule of thumb , meaning a rough measurement. An urban legend has it that the phrase refers to an old English law under which a man could legally beat his wife with a st ... more details
Deleted image removed Image MrTompkinsinPaperback.gif Cover of the 1993 Cambridge University Press edition of Mr Tompkins in Paperback right frame The Wiktionary eponymous eponymous character of Mr Tompkins appears in a series of four books by the physics physicist George Gamow in which he aims to explain modern scientific theories to a popular audience. The books are structured as a series of dream s in which Mr Tompkins enters alternate worlds where the physical constants have radically different values from those they have in the real world. This results in the counterintuitive results of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics becoming obvious in everyday life. Mr Tompkins adventures begin when he chooses to spend the afternoon of a day s holiday attending a lecture on the theory of relativity. The lecture proves less comprehensible than he had hoped and he drifts off to sleep and enters a dream world in which the speed of light is a mere 30 miles an hour. This becomes apparent to him through the fact that passing cyclists are subject to a noticeable Lorentz Fitzgerald contraction . Despite this inauspicious beginning to his scientific education, Mr Tompkins becomes acquainted with the Professor delivering the lectures and ultimately marries the Professor s daughter, Maud. Later chapters in the books deal with atom ic structure Mr Tompkins spends time as a conduction electron , returning to consciousness when he is annihilated in an encounter with a positron and thermodynamics the Professor expounds an analogy between the second law of thermodynamics and the bias towards the casino in gambling before being confounded by a local reversal of the second law through the intervention of Maxwell s demon who has introduced himself to Maud in one of her dreams . Later books in the series tackled biology a subject taken up by the son of Mr and Mrs Tompkins who has inherited the Professor s academic leanings and advanced cosmology. In 2010 the first volume of a pro ... more details
The Green Schwarz mechanism sometimes called the Green Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism is the main discovery that started the first superstring revolution in superstring theory . Discovery In 1984 , Michael Green physicist Michael Green and John H. Schwarz realized that the anomaly physics anomaly in type I string theory with the gauge group SO 32 cancels because of an extra classical contribution from a 2 form field. They realized that one of the necessary conditions for a superstring theory to make sense is that the dimension of the gauge group of type I string theory must be 496 number 496 and then demonstrated this to be so. In the original calculation, gauge anomalies, mixed anomalies, and gravitational anomalies were expected to arise ref cite journal last Frampton first Paul H. coauthors Thomas W. Kephart title Explicit Evaluation of Anomalies in Higher Dimensions year 1983 journal Physical Review Letters volume 50 issue 18 pages 1343 1346 doi 10.1103 PhysRevLett.50.1343 bibcode 1983PhRvL..50.1343F ref from a hexagon Feynman diagram . For the special choice of the gauge group SO 32 or E8 mathematics E8 x E8 , however, the anomaly factorizes and may be cancelled by a tree diagram. In string theory , this indeed occurs. The tree diagram describes the exchange of a virtual quantum of the B field. It is somewhat counterintuitive to see that a tree diagram cancels a one loop diagram , but in reality, both of these diagrams arise as one loop diagrams in superstring theory in which the anomaly cancellation is more transparent. As recounted in The Elegant Universe s TV version, in the second episode, The String s the Thing , section Wrestling with String Theory , Green describes the night of the finding 496 on each side of the equals sign to a stormy night filled with lightning, and fondly recalls joking that the gods are trying to prevent us from completing this calculation . Green soon entitled some of his subsequent lectures Theory of Everything The Theory ... more details
multiple image image1 britain fractal coastline 100km.png width1 180 image2 britain fractal coastline 50km.png width2 180 footer An example of the coastline paradox. If the coastline of Great Britain is measured using fractal units convert 100 km mi abbr on long, then the length of the coastline is approximately convert 2800 km mi abbr on . With convert 50 km mi abbr on units, the total length is approximately convert 3400 km mi abbr on , approximately convert 600 km mi abbr on longer. The coastline paradox is the counterintuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well defined length. This results from the fractal like properties of coastlines. ref MathWorld urlname CoastlineParadox title Coastline Paradox ref ref cite book title The Fractal Geometry of Nature last Mandelbrot first Benoit publisher W.H. Freeman and Co. date 1983 at 25 33 isbn 978 0 7167 1186 5 ref It was first observed by Lewis Fry Richardson . More concretely, the length of the coastline depends on the method used to measure it. Since a landmass has features at all scales, from hundreds of kilometers in size to tiny fractions of a millimeter and below, there is no obvious limit to the size of the smallest feature that should not be measured around, and hence no single well defined perimeter to the landmass. Various approximations exist when specific assumptions are made about minimum feature size. For practical considerations, an appropriate choice of minimum feature size is on the order of the units being used to measure. If a coastline is measured in kilometers, then small variations much smaller than one kilometer are easily ignored. To measure the coastline in centimeters, tiny variations of the size of centimeters must be considered. However, at scales on the order of centimeters various arbitrary and non fractal assumptions must be made, such as where an estuary joins the sea, or where in a broad tidal flat the coastline measurements ought to be taken. Extreme cases ... more details
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