I conceived and developed a new geometry of nature and implemented its use in a number of diverse fields. It describes many of the irregular and fragmented patterns around us, and leads to full-fledged theories, by identifying a family of shapes I call fractals.

Benoit Mandelbrot

Categorized in : Science Numbers Nomenclature

Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules, which are repeated without end.

Benoit Mandelbrot

miracle simple spring

Why is geometry often described as cold and dry? One reason lies in its inability to describe the shape of a cloud, a mountain, a coastline or a tree.

Benoit Mandelbrot

nature science lying

Think not of what you see, but what it took to produce what you see.

Benoit Mandelbrot

produce thinking

Regular geometry, the geometry of Euclid, is concerned with shapes which are smooth, except perhaps for corners and lines, special lines which are singularities, but some shapes in nature are so complicated that they are equally complicated at the big scale and come closer and closer and they don't become any less complicated.

Benoit Mandelbrot

lines shapes special

A formula can be very simple, and create a universe of bottomless complexity.

Benoit Mandelbrot

formulas complexity simple

Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.

Benoit Mandelbrot

mountain circles clouds

$A fractal is a way of seeing infinity. by Benoit Mandelbrot$

A fractal is a way of seeing infinity.

Benoit Mandelbrot

fractals infinity way

Being a language, mathematics may be used not only to inform but also, among other things, to seduce.

Benoit Mandelbrot

engineering may science

The theory of probability is the only mathematical tool available to help map the unknown and the uncontrollable. It is fortunate that this tool, while tricky, is extraordinarily powerful and convenient.

Benoit Mandelbrot

powerful tools science

Many painters had a clear idea of what fractals are. Take a French classic painter named Poussin. Now, he painted beautiful landscapes, completely artificial ones, imaginary landscapes. And how did he choose them? Well, he had the balance of trees, of lawns, of houses in the distance. He had a balance of small objects, big objects, big trees in front and his balance of objects at every scale is what gives to Poussin a special feeling.

Benoit Mandelbrot

small-objects distance beautiful

One couldn't even measure roughness. So, by luck, and by reward for persistence, I did found the theory of roughness, which certainly I didn't expect and expecting to found one would have been pure madness.

Benoit Mandelbrot

persistence rewards luck

Self-similarity is a dull subject because you are used to very familiar shapes. But that is not the case. Now many shapes which are self-similar again, the same seen from close by and far away, and which are far from being straight or plane or solid.

Benoit Mandelbrot

shapes self dull

There is a joke that your hammer will always find nails to hit. I find that perfectly acceptable

Benoit Mandelbrot

acceptable hammers nails

The most complex object in mathematics, the Mandelbrot Set ... is so complex as to be uncontrollable by mankind and describable as 'chaos'.

Benoit Mandelbrot

chaos mathematics mankind

Fractal geometry is not just a chapter of mathematics, but one that helps Everyman to see the same world differently.

Benoit Mandelbrot

mathematics helping world

The most important thing I have done is to combine something esoteric with a practical issue that affects many people.

Benoit Mandelbrot

issues important people

Engineering is too important to wait for science.

Benoit Mandelbrot

engineering important waiting

A cloud is made of billows upon billows upon billows that look like clouds. As you come closer to a cloud you don't get something smooth, but irregularities at a smaller scale.

Benoit Mandelbrot

smooth clouds looks

Think of color, pitch, loudness, heaviness, and hotness. Each is the topic of a branch of physics

Benoit Mandelbrot

branches color thinking

There is a saying that every nice piece of work needs the right person in the right place at the right time.

Benoit Mandelbrot

pieces nice needs