For example on wikipedia for Switzerland it says the country has an area of 41,285 km². Does this take into account that a lot of that area is actually angled at a steep inclination, thus the actual surface area is in effect larger than what you would expect when looking onto a map in satellite view?

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[–] 24 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Due to the fractal nature of geometery, all they would have to do is use more fine-grained measurements. :)

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    That would work for the perimeter, but not for the area.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    It works exactly the same!

    edit: With the assumption that we now measure inclines of course. If measuring area of the flattened overhead projection (the current normal way) we don't get fractal effect.

    If I go over our parking lot with a 1m^2 granularity, I get 100m^2. If I go with 1cm^2 granularity, I get 110m^2 because I catch the sides of the curbs, potholes, etc.

    https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/3DSnowflakeFractals/

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