RIP Benoît Mandelbrot

“Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coasts are not curves, trees’ bark is not smooth, and thunder doesn’t travel in a straight line.” All these forms are fractals. Fractal geometry can still explain “how galaxies gather in groups, how the price of wheat changes with time, and how the brains of mammals fold as they grow.” That’s how the book Nature’s Fractal Geometry begins, by Polish mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot, who died yesterday.

It was in 1975 that Mandelbrot created the term “fractal.” But what are fractals after all? There’s no simultaneously simple and precise definition of it, but one of the things that define a fractal is the fact that it can be divided in parts, each part similar to the original. Meaning that when you see a fractal, you’ll see that it repeats itself. So, at least in part, you have Mandelbrot to thank for all the the generative art you’ll find throughout your life.

Want more? The video below is a Mandelbrot presentation about how fractal geometry can find order inside apparently indecipherable patterns.

[via gizmodo.com.br]