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Mandelbrot set
While at IBM Labs in the ‘70s, Benoit Mandelbrot found a mathematical way to describe phenomena in which the small parts are the same as the big parts. He described these patterns as fractals. Clouds and shorelines are the most-oft-cited example, and fractal images have become pretty familiar in the popular culture.
In the Economist article, Mandelbrot, now in his 80s, speaks about a capstone-type project underway, which is to produce a book and accompanying art exhibit demonstrating the historical precursors to fractals. What he admits to is extending geometry [past Plato] so that it could be applied to complex rough objects [shore lines, telephone line noise, past cotton futures markets]. “The science of roughness,” he agrees to call it. His discovery, if you will, and the special affinity of his scientific work for things seeming artistic, will continue to interest people watching the dance of science and art. Fractals have been noted in the prints of Katsushika Hokusi, Celtic Jewelry and so forth. To view this through Mandlebrot’s lens is something to look forward to.
"I overturned a horn of plenty in which all kinds of things humanity has always known were located," he said. He worries about the separations of individual science disciplines into narrow guilds, and the consequent obscurity that comes with that, as scientists talking to themselves – actually just to their subset of the science structure — and the public is alienated from science. Read Father of fractals Benoit Mandelbrot -Economist.com, Dec 6, 2003
Related
Mandelbrot, history of math site
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Unrelated
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FRACTAL HOKUSI ON IMAGINATORIUM
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