Originally Posted by
terrymorse
I disagree, total elevation gain depends on how much resolution you want.
How do you define the "right" length of a coastline?
That's a different problem. Are you saying that if I hold my hand above a table top, there is no "right" distance between my hand and the table top? You can't measure a distance between two points unless they're connected? How about distance in the vacuum of space? In fact, the meter is defined as 1/299792458 of the distance light travels in a vacuum in one second, so we can certainly measure a distance in a vacuum.
There is a distance, and there is a measurement of that distance.