How Fractals Work
Fractals have been around forever but were only defined in the last quarter of the 20th century. Think you can wrap your brain around how fractals work?
Fractals have been around forever but were only defined in the last quarter of the 20th century. Think you can wrap your brain around how fractals work?
Is there a magic equation to the universe? Probably not. But thanks to one man's obsession with rabbits, we have a sequence of numbers that reflect various patterns found in nature. See more »
Has this ever happened to you? The meteorologist calls for a massive snowstorm, but the flakes fail to arrive. Chaos theory can shed light on why forecasts fail (and why our orderly world may not be so orderly after all). See more »
Fractals have been around forever but were only defined in the last quarter of the 20th century. Think you can wrap your brain around how fractals work? See more »
A world without math is unimaginable. It's a part of who we are. It's the analytical juice of our left brain. In the words of physicist Richard Feynman, even a fool can use it. So why do so many of us turn our backs on numbers? See more »
Pi is an extremely interesting number that is important to all sorts of mathematical calculations. Did you know it can be calculated without the use of circles? Find out how you can calculate it yourself. See more »
Mathematics achieves the sublime. Sometimes, as with tessellations, it rises to art. In their simplest form, tessellations consist of a single shape that repeats over a two-dimensional plane without any gaps. Why was M.C. Escher so fixated on them? See more »
You use the number zero all the time, but it may surprise you to learn that it sometimes isn't a number at all. It may surprise you even more to learn that it was all but invented. See what else surprises you about zero in this article. See more »
Tessellations pop up everywhere once you know what you're looking for. You can find them under microscopes, radiating from sunflowers and even in the hallowed halls of art museums. What can you tell us about these awesome repeating patterns? See more »
Fractal geometry transcends the Euclidean dimensions in mind-blowing ways. Quantify your knowledge of fractals with this brain-bending quiz! See more »
For many of us, a number is just a number, a bit of information that tells you, say, what time it is. But mathematicians look at that same number and divine relationships that underlie nature itself. Ready to enter the trippy world of number theory? See more »
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