Fractal geometry is revolutionizing the descriptive mathematics of applied materials systems. Rather than presenting a mathematical treatise, Brian Kaye demonstrates the power of fractal geometry in describing materials ranging from Swiss cheese to pyrolytic graphite. Written from a practical point of view, the author assiduously avoids the use of equations while introducing the reader to numerous interesting and challenging problems in subject areas ranging from geography to fine particle science. The second edition of this successful book provides up-to-date literature coverage of the use of fractal geometry in all areas of science. From reviews of the first edition: "...no stone is left unturned in the quest for applications of fractal geometry to fine particle problems....This book should provide hours of enjoyable reading to those wishing to become acquainted with the ideas of fractal geometry as applied to practical materials problems." MRS Bulletin

Fractal geometry is revolutionizing the descriptive mathematics of applied materials systems. Rather than presenting a mathematical treatise, Brian Kaye demonstrates the power of fractal geometry in describing materials ranging from Swiss cheese to pyrolytic graphite. Written from a practical point of view, the author assiduously avoids the use of equations while introducing the reader to numerous interesting and challenging problems in subject areas ranging from geography to fine particle science. The second edition of this successful book provides up-to-date literature coverage of the use of fractal geometry in all areas of science. From reviews of the first edition: '...no stone is left unturned in the quest for applications of fractal geometry to fine particle problems....This book should provide hours of enjoyable reading to those wishing to become acquainted with the ideas of fractal geometry as applied to practical materials problems.' MRS Bulletin

A mathematically rigorous introduction to fractals, emphasizing examples and fundamental ideas while minimizing technicalities.

The heat equation can be derived by averaging over a very large number of particles. Traditionally, the resulting PDE is studied as a deterministic equation, an approach that has brought many significant results and a deep understanding of the equation and its solutions. By studying the heat equation and considering the individual random particles, however, one gains further intuition into the problem. While this is now standard for many researchers, this approach is generally not presented at the undergraduate level. In this book, Lawler introduces the heat equations and the closely related notion of harmonic functions from a probabilistic perspective. The theme of the first two chapters of the book is the relationship between random walks and the heat equation. This first chapter discusses the discrete case, random walk and the heat equation on the integer lattice; and the second chapter discusses the continuous case, Brownian motion and the usual heat equation. Relationships are shown between the two. For example, solving the heat equation in the discrete setting becomes a problem of diagonalization of symmetric matrices, which becomes a problem in Fourier series in the continuous case. Random walk and Brownian motion are introduced and developed from first principles. The latter two chapters discuss different topics: martingales and fractal dimension, with the chapters tied together by one example, a random Cantor set. The idea of this book is to merge probabilistic and deterministic approaches to heat flow. It is also intended as a bridge from undergraduate analysis to graduate and research perspectives. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates, particularly those considering graduate work in mathematics or related areas.

The aim of this book is both to stimulate interest in fractal geometry and to be useful as a first text to those who use fractal geometry in their work. It contains many suggestions for experiments, and tends to rely on graphic examples, rather than swamping the reader with equations and symbols.

A visual, intuitive introduction in the form of a tour with side-quests, using direct probabilistic insight rather than technical tools.

Galileo Unbound traces the journey that brought us from Galileo's law of free fall to today's geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes. This book tells the history of spaces of expanding dimension and increasing abstraction and how they continue today to give new insight into the physics of complex systems. Galileo published the first modern law of motion, the Law of Fall, that was ideal and simple, laying the foundation upon which Newton built the first theory of dynamics. Early in the twentieth century, geometry became the cause of motion rather than the result when Einstein envisioned the fabric of space-time warped by mass and energy, forcing light rays to bend past the Sun. Possibly more radical was Feynman's dilemma of quantum particles taking all paths at once — setting the stage for the modern fields of quantum field theory and quantum computing. Yet as concepts of motion have evolved, one thing has remained constant, the need to track ever more complex changes and to capture their essence, to find patterns in the chaos as we try to predict and control our world.