Summary

This video from Nova was describing to us what a fractal is. A fractal is a shape that is very jagged. Beniot Mandelbrot was the main discoverer of the fractal. You could make a fractal by taking a normal shape for example a triangle and continue to break down the triangle by adding more inside of the original. This discovery led to many discoveries and advancements. Special effects have extremely been affected by fractals and are now able to look real. Also they were able to use computers to create fractals and then able to produce designs on clothing. Another example was cell phones and wireless computers. Fractals enable us to carry around smaller devices and still access power and internet and other sources. Fractals are everywhere landscaping, in objects, they make up the human body, and much more. Fractals are hopefully going to be able to help us discover cure for cancer. Fractals are also used to determine that larger animals use less energy. This is found by a mathematical formula. Fractals all trace back to math and even deeper to geometry.

Analysis

I thought this was very interesting. I really enjoy math and have always been good at it but I never looked at it in this perspective. I always saw it has numbers and general shapes. I think the shapes and designs they are able to create now with the discovery of fractals are crazy. I believe this is where I see beauty and individuality. I thought this weeks reading assignment was cool because of the fact that it made me analyze math deeper than just numbers and general shapes.