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 PiTrinam rated 17 months ago - From the page:
"A Fractal Universe?
Robert L. Oldershaw
Geology Department
Amherst College (Box 2262)
Amherst, MA 01002
rloldershaw@amherst.edu
ABSTRACT: From subatomic particles to superclusters of galaxies, nature has a nested hierarchical organization. There are also suggestive ...
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1 Reviews
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- PiTrinam rated 17 months ago
- From the page:
"A Fractal Universe?
Robert L. Oldershaw
Geology Department
Amherst College (Box 2262)
Amherst, MA 01002
rloldershaw@amherst.edu
ABSTRACT: From subatomic particles to superclusters of galaxies, nature has a nested hierarchical organization. There are also suggestive hints that self-similarity, the idea of similar form on different size scales, might be a fundamental property of the cosmological hierarchy. These features are the hallmarks of fractal structure. Could nature, as a whole, be a fractal system?
By now everyone with an interest in science or computers has stared in wonder at pictorial representations of the amazing fractal called the Mandelbrot set. If you are one of the few remaining holdouts, then do yourself a favor and explore the full color illustrations of this infinite mathematical labyrinth (one readily available source is James Gleick's popular book Chaos1). These images, depicting seemingly endless layers of complexity and geometric inventiveness, strike deep intellectual and emotional chords. A large part of the magic is due to the fact that as you plunge deeper into the Mandelbrot set you encounter ever-more-tiny copies of itself within the riot of detail. This "worlds within worlds" aspect, or self-similarity, calls to mind the famous poem of William Blake:
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand...
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.""
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