I recently watched a Youtube video, sorta related to a thought that has perplexed me for a while. The video was on Sinuosity, mostly related with rivers.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinuosity for a better explanation I'm about to give, but in simple form "as the crow flies".
The perplexion I have had is, a cave may have a certain surveyed length, but as "as the crow flies" how far is the farthest part of the cave from the entrance?
So I thought that this may make an interesting "top long cave list" with shortest path being the determined factor instead, side passages, mazes, and meandering passages.
But at work I kept thinking that this could be a way to classify caves or their passages just like they use sinuosity to classify rivers. For example we could say the imaginary "Oddball Cave" has a sinuosity of 1.33 for the first 1,421 feet (Borehole) then has a sinuosity of 3.26 for 2341 feet (passage with many changes in direction) with a passage that then terminates with 34.97 (maze). But an over all sinuosity classification would be simplest and tell a lot about a cave just by the number. A cave with a figure (passage length/ shortest distance) that is high would indicate a maze or many different branches or sections. A low figure would indicate it is a very straight cave, or has few branches.
I know this concept needs work and thought. I have thought of pits ( that have no other passage) and considered their value to be "undefined" but a zero would work to make the point it is a pit. That also brings up the 2D thought of this classification or should it go 3D?
Any thoughts on this would be helpful. If it the community thinks it's a good idea I will work to perfect it. Or maybe someone else has.