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  robertgorell posted to Twitter an article:

  11:37 am
  

  Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85

  “[“The length of the coastline, in a sense, is infinite."] Benoît Mandelbrot, R.I.P. http://nyti.ms/aCy0RG” 

  The length is very long. It is not infinite. The number of water molecules on earth is finite. The set of water molecules in contact with the coast of Britain is small compared to the set of water molecules in the seas. 

  Water molecules have a finite size.  The coast is there for finite in length.

  
  

  If Mandelbrot uttered the quote he was wrong.  I suspect he is misquoted.