Posted
on November 20, 2013
A
“theory of roughness” in nature;
.....a
new sort of geometry to explain “random” and chaotic phenomena;
............a
complicated life.
Benoit
Mandelbrot was from a Jewish Lithuanian family, but he was born in
Poland. As a child, his family fled from the Nazis to Paris, where
they stayed with an uncle who was a mathematician. Mandelbrot was
pretty sure that his uncle saved their lives, and we can be pretty
sure that his uncle also influenced Mandelbrot's interest in
mathematics.
After
World War II, Mandelbrot lived in France and in the U.S. He had dual
citizenship, he attended and earned degrees from universities in both
countries, and he held positions in institutes and universities in
both countries. I guess that makes him a Polish-born French-American
man with Lithuanian roots!
I
don't know if that distinctly non-settled sort of life led to
Mandelbrot studying complex shapes in nature, but he ended up
developing an entirely new sort of geometry: fractal geometry.
What
is a fractal?
A
fractal is a curve or figure that has a self-similar pattern at every
scale. For example, a snowflake has a beautifully symmetrical but
complex shape. If you zoom in on any one part of the snowflake, you
will see details that have similar angles and symmetries to those
seen in the whole snowflake. Zoom in farther, and you will see even
more complexities and details that are again similar to the
whole.
Self-similarity and complexity can be seen in many different places in nature, such as eroded coastlines, clouds, crystals, or galaxies.
Self-similarity and complexity can be seen in many different places in nature, such as eroded coastlines, clouds, crystals, or galaxies.
- Check out the Mandelbrot set!
- I love me some fractals! I have pulled together a bunch more fractal links and even an idea or two for fractal crafts on a Fractal Pinterest board.
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