Fractal Explorer
Benoît Mandelbrot - The father of fractal geometry
Life of Benoît Mandelbrot
Mandelbrot was born in Warsaw on the 20. November 1924 and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on the 14. October 2010. His work included theorys about mathematics, theoretical physics, mathematical finance and chaos theory. But he is best known for beeing the father of fractal geometry. Mandelbrot grew up in France and studied engeneering and aeronautics. In 1952 he did his doctorate in mathematics.
Mandelbrots work regarding fractals
Mandelbrot not only found the Mandelbrot Set but also he coined the term fractal. He also popuralized this disciplin by writing books and giving speeches intended for the general public. Some fractals were described by other mathematicains befor Mandelbrot published his theory, but these were always described as somekind of mathematical abnormality. Mandelbrot searched for similaritys of these fractal objects and found the self similarity and the scale invariance. This made these fractal objects describable and calculatable. Furthermore he said that one can find fractals in human behaviour like art, music, architecture and share prices.