From the reviews: "In the world of mathematics, the 1980's might well be described as the "decade of the fractal". Starting with Benoit Mandelbrot's remarkable text The Fractal Geometry of Nature, there has been a deluge of books, articles and television programmes about the beautiful mathematical objects, drawn by computers using recursive or iterative algorithms, which Mandelbrot christened fractals. Gerald Edgar's book is a significant addition to this deluge. Based on a course given to talented high- school students at Ohio University in 1988, it is, in fact, an advanced undergraduate textbook about the mathematics of fractal geometry, treating such topics as metric spaces, measure theory, dimension theory, and even some algebraic topology. However, the book also contains many good illustrations of fractals (including 16 color plates), together with Logo programs which were used to generate them. ... Here then, at last, is an answer to the question on the lips of so many: 'What exactly is a fractal?' I do not expect many of this book's readers to achieve a mature understanding of this answer to the question, but anyone interested in finding out about the mathematics of fractal geometry could not choose a better place to start looking." #Mathematics Teaching#1

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

This volume contains surveys and original papers resulting from the international conference Topology and Measure VI.

A mathematical study of the geometrical aspects of sets of both integral and fractional Hausdorff dimension. Considers questions of local density, the existence of tangents of such sets as well as the dimensional properties of their projections in various directions.

Based on a course given to talented high-school students at Ohio University in 1988, this book is essentially an advanced undergraduate textbook about the mathematics of fractal geometry. It nicely bridges the gap between traditional books on topology/analysis and more specialized treatises on fractal geometry. The book treats such topics as metric spaces, measure theory, dimension theory, and even some algebraic topology. It takes into account developments in the subject matter since 1990. Sections are clear and focused. The book contains plenty of examples, exercises, and good illustrations of fractals, including 16 color plates.

This book provides a generalised approach to fractal dimension theory from the standpoint of asymmetric topology by employing the concept of a fractal structure. The fractal dimension is the main invariant of a fractal set, and provides useful information regarding the irregularities it presents when examined at a suitable level of detail. New theoretical models for calculating the fractal dimension of any subset with respect to a fractal structure are posed to generalise both the Hausdorff and box-counting dimensions. Some specific results for self-similar sets are also proved. Unlike classical fractal dimensions, these new models can be used with empirical applications of fractal dimension including non-Euclidean contexts. In addition, the book applies these fractal dimensions to explore long-memory in financial markets. In particular, novel results linking both fractal dimension and the Hurst exponent are provided. As such, the book provides a number of algorithms for properly calculating the self-similarity exponent of a wide range of processes, including (fractional) Brownian motion and Lévy stable processes. The algorithms also make it possible to analyse long-memory in real stocks and international indexes. This book is addressed to those researchers interested in fractal geometry, self-similarity patterns, and computational applications involving fractal dimension and Hurst exponent.

Both fractal geometry and dynamical systems have a long history of development and have provided fertile ground for many great mathematicians and much deep and important mathematics. These two areas interact with each other and with the theory of chaos in a fundamental way: many dynamical systems (even some very simple ones) produce fractal sets, which are in turn a source of irregular 'chaotic' motions in the system. This book is an introduction to these two fields, with an emphasis on the relationship between them. The first half of the book introduces some of the key ideas in fractal geometry and dimension theory - Cantor sets, Hausdorff dimension, box dimension - using dynamical notions whenever possible, particularly one-dimensional Markov maps and symbolic dynamics. Various techniques for computing Hausdorff dimension are shown, leading to a discussion of Bernoulli and Markov measures and of the relationship between dimension, entropy, and Lyapunov exponents. In the second half of the book some examples of dynamical systems are considered and various phenomena of chaotic behaviour are discussed, including bifurcations, hyperbolicity, attractors, horseshoes, and intermittent and persistent chaos. These phenomena are naturally revealed in the course of our study of two real models from science - the FitzHugh - Nagumo model and the Lorenz system of differential equations. This book is accessible to undergraduate students and requires only standard knowledge in calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations. Elements of point set topology and measure theory are introduced as needed. This book is a result of the MASS course in analysis at Penn State University in the fall semester of 2008.