Benoit Mandelbrot and the Coast of Britain

How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension by Benoît Mandelbrot

Water and land, like fingers interlaced
along a boundary of fractal length
divide and conquer self-similar space.
Like lovers in a close-contact embrace
they clasp each other in a couple-dance
in time stepped off in tidal increments,
the tango rhythm of retreat/advance
rekindled by each passing lunar glance.

So any scheme of finite measurement
of coastlines must require a leap of faith
from point to point along an edge of lace,
the moving merge of sea and continent.
And so Benoit walks on, his rule in hand
admitting he can't know the length of land.

--for Read Write Poem
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