= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
dbaupp comments on Rationality Quotes May 2012 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (696)
I don't understand. Continents are just big islands, they have shorelines too.
If a continent takes up more than half the world, then the shorter the shoreline, the bigger the continent.
But the cutoff is obviously not "continent"/"not continent", but rather "takes up more than half the world" versus "doesn't take up more than half the world" - possibly with an additional constraint of a sufficiently simple shoreline...
"Continent" vs. "island" is an arbitrary line, a matter of definition. Whereas smaller/bigger than half the world is precise and objective.
Geometry. Big areas with less big corresponding perimeters.
This is answer is about as informative as answering "Why do aeroplanes fly?" with "Calculus. Differential equations with forces.".
If you are talking about continents larger than half the world, then DanArmak has already pointed it out and much more politely. However, as dlthomas points out the distinction is not based on it being a continent or not, but on it covering more than half the word.
Also, everything we call a continent on Earth takes up less than half of it, and for such things there is a minimum perimeter that increases as the area increases. (The minimum perimeter is something a little bit like
2*sqrt(pi*Area)(except different because the Earth is a sphere rather than a plane).)Were you trying to point out that the shoreline's length varies as the square root of the size of the island?
Doesn't that depend a lot on how convoluted the shoreline is?
Yes, but only if the shape varies too.
I'm not sure immediately what it means for the shape not to vary if you are growing a complexly shaped island on a sphere.
You're right. I was imagining it on a plane.
Edit: Only later did I look at this comment out of context and start daydreaming about making some sort of Snakes on a Plane joke.