Philosophy
Still saddened by the recent passing of Benoit Mandelbrot, I did some digging this weekend and found a treasure: a fantastic documentary about the Mandelbrot Set, and fractals in general, narrated by none other than the great Arthur C. Clarke. Can scientific/mathematical geekiness get any cooler?
I hope you enjoyed the recent mind trip through the Mandelbrot set, but you may have wondered whether the different colors of the set are representative of something, or whether they are purely artistic depictions purposely made for aesthetic purposes. The answer, as you'll find out, is that although the colors are arbitrary, they are not meaningless. I'll leave Arthur C. Clarke to explain that fascinating concept.
You may have also wondered whether fractals have any practical applications, or whether they ought to be contemplated merely for their intellectual and visual beauty. I think there's nothing wrong with the purely contemplative appreciation, but for those of you more practically minded, fractals have immense practical, intellectual and industrial applications, and that's just scratching the surface.
Prepare yourself for some amazing intellectual and visual stimulation, accompanied to the sound of some sweet electric guitar :)
Learn more about the relationship between fractals and evolution in The Secret Life of Chaos, with Jim Al-Khalili.
.
- Evolution Through Hands
As someone with an incredibly short attention span, I've been thinking of lots of things lately, from the classics to history, biology, existentialism, love, to math, fractals and infinity. And the ideas of fractals and evolution reminded me of the...
- Doodling In Math - Spirals, Fibonacci And Plants - 1
Time for some math. No, don't run away! I guarantee even the greatest of mathophobes among you are going to love this, not only because it's a new episode of the Doodling in Math Class series (narrated by the future mother of my children, although...
- Deceased--benoît B. Mandelbrot
Benoît B. Mandelbrot November 20th, 1924 to October 14th, 2010 "Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85" by Jascha Hoffman October 16th, 2010 The New York Times Benoît B. Mandelbrot, a maverick mathematician who developed the field of fractal...
- Mother Nature's Fractals
This variant form of cauliflower is the ultimate fractal vegetable. Its pattern is a natural representation of the Fibonacci or golden spiral, a logarithmic spiral where every quarter turn is farther from the origin by a factor of phi, the golden ratio....
- Nova--"hunting The Hidden Dimension"
Dan Lindeberg Being aired this Tuesday evening, October 28th, on most PBS stations is a program on fractals where art and science meet..."Hunting the Hidden Dimension". Hunting the Hidden Dimension How ancient the relationship is. Such a relationship...
Philosophy
Fractals - The Colors of Infinity (by Arthur C. Clarke)
Still saddened by the recent passing of Benoit Mandelbrot, I did some digging this weekend and found a treasure: a fantastic documentary about the Mandelbrot Set, and fractals in general, narrated by none other than the great Arthur C. Clarke. Can scientific/mathematical geekiness get any cooler?I hope you enjoyed the recent mind trip through the Mandelbrot set, but you may have wondered whether the different colors of the set are representative of something, or whether they are purely artistic depictions purposely made for aesthetic purposes. The answer, as you'll find out, is that although the colors are arbitrary, they are not meaningless. I'll leave Arthur C. Clarke to explain that fascinating concept.
You may have also wondered whether fractals have any practical applications, or whether they ought to be contemplated merely for their intellectual and visual beauty. I think there's nothing wrong with the purely contemplative appreciation, but for those of you more practically minded, fractals have immense practical, intellectual and industrial applications, and that's just scratching the surface.
Prepare yourself for some amazing intellectual and visual stimulation, accompanied to the sound of some sweet electric guitar :)
Learn more about the relationship between fractals and evolution in The Secret Life of Chaos, with Jim Al-Khalili.
.
- Evolution Through Hands
As someone with an incredibly short attention span, I've been thinking of lots of things lately, from the classics to history, biology, existentialism, love, to math, fractals and infinity. And the ideas of fractals and evolution reminded me of the...
- Doodling In Math - Spirals, Fibonacci And Plants - 1
Time for some math. No, don't run away! I guarantee even the greatest of mathophobes among you are going to love this, not only because it's a new episode of the Doodling in Math Class series (narrated by the future mother of my children, although...
- Deceased--benoît B. Mandelbrot
Benoît B. Mandelbrot November 20th, 1924 to October 14th, 2010 "Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85" by Jascha Hoffman October 16th, 2010 The New York Times Benoît B. Mandelbrot, a maverick mathematician who developed the field of fractal...
- Mother Nature's Fractals
This variant form of cauliflower is the ultimate fractal vegetable. Its pattern is a natural representation of the Fibonacci or golden spiral, a logarithmic spiral where every quarter turn is farther from the origin by a factor of phi, the golden ratio....
- Nova--"hunting The Hidden Dimension"
Dan Lindeberg Being aired this Tuesday evening, October 28th, on most PBS stations is a program on fractals where art and science meet..."Hunting the Hidden Dimension". Hunting the Hidden Dimension How ancient the relationship is. Such a relationship...