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It’s about patterns, logic, beauty and
infinity. The best way to demonstrate this is with fractals and specifically The Mandelbrot Set discovered as recently
as 1980.
The
Mandlebrot set is a pattern that’s self replicating and unique, its simple and
its complex and its beautiful. It seemingly
goes on forever.
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It’s been called
the definition of infinity and the “thumbprint of God”. I’m inclined to think
the latter is true as you don’t have to look very far in the physical world to
find Mandlebrot designs – carved in stone on Indian temples, under the
microscope, in the fronds of the weedy sea dragon – the list is as endless as a
fractal.
I’m not very good at mathematical writing but the best way to explain it
that I’ve found is an article by Dave Dewey Introduction to the Mandelbrot Set - A guide for people with little math
experience.
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identical to
the whole. In fact, the Mandelbrot set is infinitely complex. Yet the process
of generating it is based on an extremely simple equation involving complex
numbers. “
Fractals are a
lot of fun for kids and there are a number of free on-line generators such as Easy
Fractal Generator and Fractal Poster.
Another good
place to go is You Tube where in a series of 6 videos science fiction author Arthur C Clarke introduces
the Mandelbrot set
