Benoit Mandelbrot, Mathematician, Dies at 85 (Fractal geometry)

New York Times ^ | October 16, 2010 | JASCHA HOFFMAN

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Redmen4ever]

With regard to the length of coastlines, there can be a limiting value such that as X, the unit of measurement, approaches zero, Y, the length of the coastline approaches a number Z less than infinity.

[SuperLuminal]

Yep! His work helped explain why two different sets of xrays showed a different count on the number of fractaled ribs I sustained in an accident.

Fortunately the judge (presiding at the subsequent trial three years later) was familiar with Mandelbrot’s work...

[Daffynition]

[Daffynition]

My favorite image of him with a Koch snowflake on the chalkboard.

[dennisw]

Fractal crop circles

Fractal vegetable --- Romaneque broccoli

[IronJack]

You’re right. It takes forever for the rabbit to reach the carrot. But the distance to the carrot is finite. It can be measured. The same is true of the length of a shoreline. We KNOW it can be measured, but if we keep defining it more and more granularly, eventually it becomes infinite.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

There is a subtle difference in the analogy. The distance to the carrot is finite. The distance of the coast is infinite but the area encompassed by the coast is finite. Hence the definition of a fractional dimension or fractal.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks tlb.

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[tet68]

Considering an expanding universe it’s true.

I remember another example, a boy and a girl are on
opposite sides of the room, they half the distance between
them each time, they never touch but are “close enough
for all practical purposes”.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.google.com/search?q=benoit+mandelbrot+site:freerepublic.com