About this title: Fractal geometry is the geometry of the natural world. It mirrors the uneven but real shapes of nature, the world as we actually experience it, unlike the idealized forms of Euclidean geometry. We see fractals everywhere. Indeed, we "are" fractal! Using computers, fractal geometry can make precise models of physical structures - from ferns, arteries and brains to galaxies. Fractal geometry is a new language. Once you are able to speak it, you can describe the shape of a cloud as precisely as an architect can describe a house. "Introducing Fractal Geometry" traces the development of this ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Totem Books
Date Published: 2000-01-15
ISBN-13:9781840461237ISBN:1840461233
Description: New. NEW-never used. Pages are clean and binding is secure. The top of the text has yellowed. There are tiny creased at the tips of a few pages. Cover is in very good condition. Orders packed carefully and shipped daily with tracking # emailed to you. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9781840461237ISBN:1840461233
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
"What a fun book. First time in a long time that I read a book from cover to cover in one sitting. I was inspired by a recent broadcast on Nova to explore fractals further. True, you have to be a bit of a nerd to enjoy such a book, but I found it very cool."
"This is a fun and concise introduction to fractals. The comic book format is a nice foil to some of the more challenging ideas. On balance, perhaps a little too much time is spent making real-world connections (some very apt others, a bit touchy feely).
On the whole a great place to start and get your barings."
"Dost mine eyes deceive me? Introducing Fractal Geometry for $1? On the kids' shelf? And it's illustrated, of course!!!
It could be titles "Fractal Geometry: the Graphic Novel."
*****
Wow! That was fun! There was some I didn't really get - like how a set cannot contain itself, and how that related to fractals; and (still) what an attractor is. But the history was fascinating. I had no idea how contemporary Mendelbrot is. When my Dad got his M-set images published in Scientific American, Mandelbrot's work was about 10 years old.
I learned lots of cool things:
The Mandelbrot set (M-set) is a plotting of which Julia sets are connected and which are disconnected (tend to infinity).
That if you color in all the odd numbers in a Pascal Triangle, you get a Sierpinski Triangle. (That was the coolest thing by far.)
Fractal images have a dimension somewhere between 1 and 2 (fractional dimensions).
Our heartbeat is slightly fractal, which protects the heart. If every beat were exactly the same, the muscle would become strained in a consistent manner. Slightly (fractally) irregular heartbeats allows wear and tear to spread itself out.
Mandelbrot's lack of consistent formal education, combined with his father's and uncle's loving instruction and encouragement at home, along with the establishment's provincial view on images with respect to mathematical study all contributed to him rebelling in a way, to pursue his own ideas, in his own way. If he had had a traditional education, he probably never would have fully developed these fundamentally important ideas. (Points for unschooling!!)
If ordinary algebra, geometry, calculus, linear algebra, etc, had a graphic novel approach like this book takes, many more kids would "get" math and love it!"
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