Talk:Coastline of the United Kingdom

The title of the page - and much of the page - is wrong
Oops! This page is a bit of a disaster. It seems to suggest that the "United Kingdom" and "Britain" are the same thing. They most certainly are not! The United Kingdom is the political country which includes Northern Ireland and various other islands off the coast of Britain. The main island of the United Kingdom is called Britain, or, more correctly, Great Britain. Hence, this page should be retitled Coastline of Britain, or Coastline of Great Britain. And also the misunderstandings should be corrected throughout the article. As it stands, it's all terribly wrong. Andrewthomas10 (talk) 13:16, 1 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Fixed these issues, article title is okay now. Whizz40 (talk) 14:14, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

Comparison of UK/ Greece coastline
"The length of the UK coastline is around 17,820 km ... Greece, which also has a large number of islands, has a coastline of around 13,600km, even longer than the UK's". I know that there are various ways to measure coastlines but this reads as nonsense. Knowledge33 (talk) 16:50, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed this! I've changed the UK figure, having quoted it from List of countries by length of coastline which is based on the CIA World Factbook. The Greek figure was based on this too, so at least they're both from the same source and make some sense now. I couldn't find anywhere on the old source that mentioned coast length. --Danny252 (talk) 20:57, 1 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Restored some text and addressed these issues. Whizz40 (talk) 16:48, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

Section headings and lead
This article could benfit from some section headings and a summary in the lead. Whizz40 (talk) 07:04, 21 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Reorganised the existing content of the article and made some improvements. Whizz40 (talk) 17:32, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

Citation no longer resolves
The link associated with the citation for the length of the coastline as measured by the Ordnance Survey is no longer active. It now redirects to their homepage.

This may be a useful alternate source: http://www.statsmapsnpix.com/2016/08/how-long-is-coastline-of-great-britain.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.20.212.111 (talk) 14:01, 7 February 2020 (UTC)


 * I've now updated the link to the Ordnance Survey website. - Blurryman (talk) 19:12, 8 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately that link does not actually provide the figures which are being claimed. It is tangentially relevant, but not a valid source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.20.212.111 (talk) 05:32, 11 February 2020 (UTC)


 * The figure of 17,820 km in the article is stated further down the webpage, in the section headed "How do we measure the length of the coastline at OS?". This is "The official OS blog" and part of the Ordnance Survey website. -Blurryman (talk) 18:19, 11 February 2020 (UTC)


 * And the reference for the BCS leads simply to their homepage and not to the (partial) answer given currently in the text to a question that has to be guessed at! Geopersona (talk) 18:41, 29 December 2020 (UTC)


 * I have rearranged and rewritten the text in this section, and provided different sources for the figures quoted. Blurryman (talk) 19:03, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

Infinitely fractal
The accuracy with which the coastline can be measured is limited by


 * daily tidal variations
 * the variations in tides over the lunar cycle
 * and indeed the random variations between individual waves.

Furthermore, in many places any small-scale irregularities will be removed over time by the action of the sea on shifting sands etc.

It is therefore impossible for the coastline to be infinitely fractal.---Ehrenkater (talk) 09:57, 8 August 2020 (UTC)
 * and, we might observe . . . in many places many small-scale irregularities will be added over time by the action of the sea on shifting sands etc. Geopersona (talk) 18:43, 29 December 2020 (UTC)