Chaos and Fractals cover

Chaos and Fractals

by Heinz-Otto Peitgen

For almost 15 years chaos and fractals have been riding a wave that has enveloped many areas of mathematics and the natural sciences in its power, creativity and expanse. Traveling far beyond the traditional bounds of mathematics and science to the distant shores of popular culture, this wave captures the attention and enthusiasm of a worldwide audience. The fourteen chapters of this book cover the central ideas and concepts of chaos and fractals as well as many related topics including: the Mandelbrot Set, Julia Sets, Cellulair Automata, L- systems, Percolation and Strange Attractors. Each chapter is closed by a "Program of the Chapter" which provides computer code for a central experiment. Two appendices complement the book. The first, by Yuval Fisher, discusses the details and ideas of fractal images and compression; the second, by Carl J.G. Evertsz and Benoit Mandelbrot, introduces the foundations and implications of multifractals.

More by Heinz-Otto Peitgen

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?