pouët.net

Coastline/area ratio for certain countries

category: offtopic [glöplog]
In another thread Navis mentioned that going to Spain would be his only chance to visit a beach this year.

What!?

This from a person who lives in Greece. Which is like, one big beach.

Greece (home of Navis):
13,676 km coastline
131,940 sq km area
works out to ~10 sq km land per km of coastline

Spain (home of Euskal)
4,964 km coastline
505,370 sq km area
~ 100 sq km land per km of coastline

You're MUCH more likely to be close to a beach in Greece than in Spain. For the average case you'll be 10 times further from a beach in Spain. So it makes no sense to go from Greece to Spain to visit a beach. Especially not since one is probably less than 10 km away.

For comparison, other countries:

Denmark 7,314 km vs 42,394 sq km = ~6 sq km/km
Gibraltar 12 km 6.5 sq km = ~0.5 sq km/km

Uuuh, nice, look at Gibraltar go! Probably also the European country with the highest wild monkey/sq km ratio.

Japan 29,751 km vs 377,915 sq km = ~12 sq km/km

No wonder these guys almost got rolled over by a big wave. Good thing it wasn't Gibraltar!

Kuwait 499 km vs 17,818 sq km = ~35 sq km/km
Germany 2,389 km vs 357,022 sq km = ~155 sq km/km

No wonder lots of Germans would like to buy summer houses in Denmark.

Israel 273 km vs 20,770 sq km = ~75 sq km/km
New Zealand 15,134 km vs 267,710 sq km = ~18 sq km/km
Norway 25,148 km vs 323,802 sq km = ~13 sq km/km

Norway - surprisingly high ratio, given the number of Fjords.

France 4,853 km vs 643,801 sq km = ~132 sq km/km
Russia 37,653 km vs 17,098,242 sq km = ~450 sq km/km

Ouch, not a good country for drums.

Sweden 3,218 km vs 450,295 sq km = ~140 sq km/km

Surprisingly high, compared to Norway.

United States 19,924 km vs 9,826,675 = ~330 sq km/km

Earth Total:
Area: 356,000 km
Coastline: 148.94 million sq km
~ 420 sq km of land per km of coastline

Hmmm, clearly higher than any of the countries I managed to find. Of course, there are also 55 landlocked countries with zero coastline. You guys should invade Norway. There's no way they can protect all of it.

Interestingly, Norway makes up about 7% of the coastline on planet earth. And that's not counting all of the Norwegian islands, which would literally triple the figure.

NOTE: the coastline numbers do not include lakes, but the area numbers do! You know - just to be conservative.
added on the 2012-07-27 00:01:17 by revival revival
well we have NONE. are you fucking happy now? :(
added on the 2012-07-27 00:04:04 by Gargaj Gargaj
Well for you it would make sense to go to Euskal!
added on the 2012-07-27 00:07:55 by revival revival
Land-locked lulz @ garg.
added on the 2012-07-27 00:47:00 by ringofyre ringofyre
styrt :)

also, coastline !== beach!
added on the 2012-07-27 00:50:09 by booster booster
also, country of origin !== where you live
added on the 2012-07-27 02:08:13 by psenough psenough
He lives in the UK. Which has no beaches, only sand near the water.
added on the 2012-07-27 02:25:35 by xernobyl xernobyl
I live 100m away from a beach so I got tired of beaches. I wouldn't mind having snow though.
added on the 2012-07-27 02:27:02 by xernobyl xernobyl
"So it makes no sense to go from Greece to Spain to visit a beach."

There's sea between them, so aren't you kinda bound to cross at least two beaches?
added on the 2012-07-27 06:19:22 by msqrt msqrt
msqrt: Point taken!
added on the 2012-07-27 07:19:40 by revival revival
gotta agree with booster, this comparison is ridiculous. i could mention a country that should be way higher on the list but, by means of technological excellence, managed to shorten it's coastline and thus risk of flooding by about 66%, yet the beaches are still there. i also realize that this proud nation is a prime target of danish envy, which led to us getting screwed out of legitimate quiz victories. but to try to steal a 1000 kilometers of our beaches by statistic misrepresentation, well, that's seriously the lowest you've managed to sink so far. how can you possibly go lower from here, you claiming your cheese tastes better than ours? your mobile homes are bigger than ours? your capital more gay than ours? don't you think it's time to put an end to your misery and just admit that you desire to be more like us but can't?
added on the 2012-07-27 08:35:12 by havoc havoc
gotta agree with booster, this comparison is ridiculous. i could mention a country that should be way higher on the list but, by means of technological excellence, managed to shorten it's coastline and thus risk of flooding by about 66%, yet the beaches are still there. i also realize that this proud nation is a prime target of danish envy, which led to us getting screwed out of legitimate quiz victories. but to try to steal a 1000 kilometers of our beaches by statistic misrepresentation, well, that's seriously the lowest you've managed to sink so far. how can you possibly go lower from here, you claiming your cheese tastes better than ours? your mobile homes are bigger than ours? your capital more gay than ours? don't you think it's time to put an end to your misery and just admit that you desire to be more like us but can't?
added on the 2012-07-27 08:35:13 by havoc havoc
wat
added on the 2012-07-27 08:38:08 by Jcl Jcl
Quote:
France 4,853 km vs 643,801 sq km = ~132 sq km/km
Russia 37,653 km vs 17,098,242 sq km = ~450 sq km/km

Ouch, not a good country for drums.


*Giggles*
added on the 2012-07-27 08:47:41 by Punqtured Punqtured
Gotta agree with havoc that was a double post.
added on the 2012-07-27 09:26:01 by ringofyre ringofyre
This thread is one big rofl!

Ralph, tror du ikke du skal kode noget i stedet for at sammenligne kystlinier, nu du i "karantæne"? ;)
added on the 2012-07-27 09:29:36 by Puryx Puryx
Interesting thing about coastlines: they're a fractal-like shape, and the closer you look, the longer they get. So you can't really measure the length of a coastline :)

Also, by this crazy coast/land area ratio method, navis should visit somewhere like this for his summer holiday:

BB Image
added on the 2012-07-27 10:38:45 by psonice psonice
It has been brought to my attention by naysayers that Navis lives in the UK. The CIA fact book could not confirm that, but here are the numbers for the UK anyway:

12,429 km
243,610 sq km
~ 20 sq km / km

You're still 5 times more likely to be near a beach in the UK! Argument still stands!

Also, the wife and I had booked a vacation to Crete in the fall, but fuck that shit, we're going to the UK instead!
added on the 2012-07-27 10:52:17 by revival revival
revival: you beachofile, you!
added on the 2012-07-27 11:52:44 by Puryx Puryx
now THAT'S some useful information at last!
added on the 2012-07-27 12:20:39 by v3nom v3nom
@psonice: Right, but something of infinite circumference has infinite area, doesn't it?
Revival, most awesome thread on pouet in 2012! ..

Havoc, you sir, are just begging for a hug!
added on the 2012-07-27 14:38:39 by dwarf dwarf
Canada has 243,000 km coastline, vs 9,984,670 km^2 surface, roughly 40km^2/km... does that make it 2.2 times easier to be near a beach than in Spain?

Wonder what would central Canada habitants think about that.
added on the 2012-07-27 14:41:47 by Jcl Jcl
In Israel you'd have to make a effort to live more than 30min for beach.
Plus, check out the water temp - I shower in a colder water :)
added on the 2012-07-27 14:55:34 by TLM TLM
I AM God, beach!
added on the 2012-07-27 15:33:26 by ferris ferris

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