Which Country Has the Longest Coastline?

哪个国家的海岸线最长?

Geography experts agree on which country boasts the most coastal mileage. With shores extending along the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific oceans, Canada claims the title of world's longest coastline. While that fact isn't disputed, the exact size of the country's coasts is harder to pin down.

地理专家们就哪个国家拥有最长海岸线的问题达成了一致。加拿大海岸沿大西洋、北极和太平洋延伸，该国拥有世界上最长的海岸线。虽然这一事实没有争议，但该国海岸线的确切长度很难确定。

Depending on the source you reference, the length of Canada's shorelines varies by tens of thousands of miles. World Atlas and World Population Review both give a total length of 202,080 kilometers, or 125,567 miles, while Canada's national statistical office lists 243,042 kilometers, or 151,019 miles of coastline.

目前已有资料显示，加拿大海岸线的长度达数万英里。《世界地图集》和《世界人口评论》给出的加拿大海岸线总长度都是202080公里（或125567英里），而加拿大国家统计局给出的海岸线长度是243042公里（或151019英里）

This discrepancy comes from the phenomenon known as the Coastline Paradox. Measuring coasts isn't as simple as determining the length of a country as the crow flies. 

这种差异源于所谓的“海岸线悖论”。测量海岸并不像直线飞行那样简单地确定一个国家的边境长度。

The borders where the land meets the ocean don't form a straight line. Instead, they comprise bends and nooks that change in small ways over the course of a day and in bigger ways over years. Measuring shorelines in smaller units technically results in more accurate numbers, but they're also impossibly large and not very practical in the real world.

陆地与海洋的边界并非一条直线，而是由弯道和角落组成，这些弯道和角落以日为单位计会发生微小的变化，以年为单位计会发生较大的变化。以更小的时间单位测量海岸线在技术上可以得到更精确的数字，但这无法广泛测量，在现实世界中不太实用。

This is why cartographers choose to look at coastlines on a bigger scale. Even so, two cartographers working with different units of measurement—say miles instead of units of 100 miles—will get different numbers for the same piece of seaside land.

这就是为什么制图师选择在更大的尺度上对海岸线进行研究。即便如此，两名使用不同测量单位（比如英里，而非100英里）的制图师对同一块海滨土地进行测量也会得到不同的结果。

We may never know the exact length of Canada's coast, but we can still say that it's the largest in the world. That's because we can compare its coastline to those of other countries measured on the same scale. 

我们可能永远不可能知道加拿大海岸线的确切长度，但我们仍然可以说该国拥有世界上最长的海岸线。这是因为我们可以将它的海岸线与其他同样规模的国家进行比较。

All common units of measurement used by cartographers rank it above other countries with impressive coastal real estate, such as the runner-ups Indonesia, Norway, and Russia. Measuring these places on a molecular level may yield different results, but that's not a project experts are eager to embark on anytime soon.

所有制图师使用的通用测量单位都将其排在沿海房地产令人印象深刻的其他国家之上，如紧随其后的印度尼西亚、挪威和俄罗斯。在分子水平上对这些国家的海岸线进行测量可能会得到不同的结果，但这并不是地理专家们亟待解决的一个问题。