Google: how long is the California coastline? Whether you’re interested in the truth about that factor or not, I’ve got a point here. The California Coastal Commision claims 1,100 miles while Visit California calls it 1,264. Finally, according to TripSavvy, if you include bays and inlets, you can get a number as high as 3,000 miles. My Google search puts the figure at 840 miles.
So, what’s the deal?
A common answer comes from Yale’s Benoit Mandelbrot and his crowning work in Fractal Geometry. You see, the length of the California coast depends on how detailed you draw your lines. A crude tape measure look at the coast line would surely not account for not trivial areas like the Santa Monica bay. But, even measuring our local bay isn’t as imprecise as measuring a crescent shape inlet. There are rock formations and jetties and the list of small deviations are endless.
This topic came up today in conversation with one of my mentors with the punchline being a challenge to our desire for knowing and certainty. Despite all of our smarts and technology, we can’t even agree on the length of our coastline. And, there’s a lesson in that.
“Knowing” is somehow only real when you look at things from a certain depth. Look closer and you might just find out things aren’t so organized in certainty as they may seem.
9/27/22 WOD
DEUCE ATHLETICS GPP
Complete 4 rounds for quality of:
8 Landmine Lateral Lunges (ea)
10 DB Pass Throughs (ea)
12 DB Tate Press
Then, EMOM 12
Min 1: :20 Max Lateral Plyo Box
Min 2: 12 Wall Balls (20/14)
Min 3: :30 Max Push Ups
DEUCE GARAGE GPP
Take 10:00 to build to a 3RM Weighted Strict Pull Up…
Then, complete the following for time:
“Isabelle”
30 Snatches (135/95)
Then, complete the following for quality of:
100 Banded Face Pulls