Benoit Mandelbrot, the Father of Fractals

The other day, a friend of mine who teaches computer science posted a link on his Facebook page to the New York Times obituary for Benoit Mandelbrot. I've included the link here in case you'd like to read it too.  It's a bit long (he was a famous scholar, after all!), and the writing is sophisticated, but if you read the first sentence of each paragraph you will get a good general idea about his life.

[Obituary = death notice and short story of the person’s life]

Being a person who loves food, the first thing I think of when I hear “mandelbrot” is a very yummy type of almond cookie.

But the second thing I think of when I hear “Mandelbrot” is a kind of crazy, psychedelic (a hippie term for very colorful, as if one were on drugs) art form called fractals. 

Mandelbrot, Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot to be exact, is the name of the person who described and named them. 

But to tell you the truth, I have no idea why fractals are important (aside from creating strangely hypnotic art).  Fortunately, I came across an article on the BBC which explained what fractals are used for.  

One very simple thing that fractals are good for is creating images of complex things.  For example, here is one that reminds me of broccoli:

Here is a picture which looks like a satellite photograph of a river, but was really created on a computer using a fractals art program:

But fractals are not just used for creating images, the theory of fractals can be applied to abstract ideas and patterns.  In the BBC article, Jack Challoner writes, "Fractal geometry can also provide a way to understand complexity in 'systems' as well as just in shapes."  He mentions that fractal theory can help to describe patterns in earthquakes, heart rhythms, and even economics.

If you'd like a simple explanation of fractals, Wikipedia's Simple English site has a page about fractal geometry which gives you a good general idea.  It includes some mathematics (I ignored that part, but you might like it) and some animations (my favorite part of the page).

If you'd like to know more about Dr. Mandelbrot, here is the link to his entry on Wikipedia.  The page includes references to articles and other web sites, if you want to find out even more about him and his ideas.

Two common words that share a root with "fractals" are fraction and fracture.  

Often you see fraction in mathematics: 

Q: If you divide a pie into 4 equal pieces, and you give one piece to each of your 3 friends, what fraction of the pie is left?

A: One quarter.

But sometimes fraction is used to mean a very small amount of the original number:

"I bought these shoes on sale for a fraction of their normal price!"

Fracture means break, most often when we talk about bones, and it can be used as a verb or a noun.

Doctor: "Well, Mrs. McCarthy, I'm sorry to say that Timmy fractured his arm when he fell off his bike."

Mrs. McCarthy: "Oh no!  How bad is the fracture?"

So when you think about the meanings of fracture and fraction, the word fractal (notice the adjective suffix?) really makes sense. 

RIP* Benoit Mandelbrot.

(*RIP = (May he/she) rest in peace.  We often write this when we want to indicate that someone has died.)