Publisher Description

Just 23 years ago Benoit Mandelbrot published his famous picture of the Mandelbrot set, but that picture has changed our view of the mathematical and physical universe. In this text, Mandelbrot offers 25 papers from the past 25 years, many related to the famous inkblot figure. Of historical interest are some early images of this fractal object produced with a crude dot-matrix printer. The text includes some items not previously published.

Fractals are characterized by the repetition of similar patterns at ever-diminishing scales. Fractal geometry has emerged as one of the most exciting frontiers on the border between mathematics and information technology and can be seen in many of the swirling patterns produced by computer graphics. It has become a new tool for modeling in biology, geology, and other natural sciences. Anthropologists have observed that the patterns produced in different cultures can be characterized by specific design themes. In Europe and America, we often see cities laid out in a grid pattern of straight streets and right-angle corners. In contrast, traditional African settlements tend to use fractal structures-circles of circles of circular dwellings, rectangular walls enclosing ever-smaller rectangles, and streets in which broad avenues branch down to tiny footpaths with striking geometric repetition. These indigenous fractals are not limited to architecture; their recursive patterns echo throughout many disparate African designs and knowledge systems. Drawing on interviews with African designers, artists, and scientists, Ron Eglash investigates fractals in African architecture, traditional hairstyling, textiles, sculpture, painting, carving, metalwork, religion, games, practical craft, quantitative techniques, and symbolic systems. He also examines the political and social implications of the existence of African fractal geometry. His book makes a unique contribution to the study of mathematics, African culture, anthropology, and computer simulations.

The digital revolution that we have experienced since the last quarter of the twentieth century has had some influence, yet to be analysed and extended, on the way mathematics is made, taught and learned. While the rate of innovation in these technologies is growing exponentially, the potential impact of most information technologies on mathematical education remains to be fully exploited. In particular, several authoritative voices point out that the technology that will most likely transform education in the coming years is artificial intelligence (AI). Interestingly, today AI is mainly associated with technologies to automate tasks and lower costs, thus serving primarily the interests of the political-administrative, industrial and commercial world. In this scenario, the world of education and, more specifically, didactics, appears at best as a mere user of AI techniques developed in other fields, forgetting that AI should play a much more relevant role here, serving the human being who is doing his work as a mathematician or who is learning mathematics. The AI4ME symposium at the International Centre for Mathematical Meetings (CIEM) in Castro Urdiales is a space for research and reflection to better understand the interconnected challenges of instrumental learning of mathematics and instrumental mathematics, taking advantage of the achievements and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence for Mathematical Education. This book of abstracts gathers the summaries of the talks presented at the symposium, as well as the conclusions of each of the four thematic groups.

The Beauty of Fractals includes six essays related to fractals, with perspectives different enough to give you a taste of the breadth of the subject. Each essay is self-contained and expository. Moreover, each of the essays is intended to be accessible to a broad audience that includes college teachers, high school teachers, advanced undergraduate students, and others who wish to learn or teach about topics in fractals that are not regularly in textbooks on fractals.

This book provides a collection of 44 simple computer and physical laboratory experiments, including some for an artist's studio and some for a kitchen, that illustrate the concepts of fractal geometry. In addition to standard topics — iterated function systems (IFS), fractal dimension computation, the Mandelbrot set — we explore data analysis by driven IFS, construction of four-dimensional fractals, basic multifractals, synchronization of chaotic processes, fractal finger paints, cooking fractals, videofeedback, and fractal networks of resistors and oscillators.

For students with a background in elementary algebra, this book provides a vivid introduction to the key phenomena and ideas of chaos and fractals, including the butterfly effect, strange attractors, fractal dimensions, Julia Sets and the Mandelbrot Set, power laws, and cellular automata. The book includes over 200 end-of-chapter exercises.