Interesting Times

5

Benoit Mandelbrot is the discoverer of the Mandelbrot Set, a famous ‘fractal’, first plotted in 1980. Mandelbrot sets are rather difficult to describe in words (actually, they are very simple to describe in words only not in a way that most people will understand…), but what it boils down to is that a picture of the Mandelbrot set is a kind of mathematical painting with many swirling colours interspersed by strange, heart-shaped clusters of black. Most people will probably have seen Mandelbrot sets on computer screens or screensavers or wall posters. If not, all you need to do is catch yourself a Quantum Weather Butterfly and study its wings.