Text: Benoit Mandelbrot coined the term fractal to describe a shape made of parts similar to the whole in some way. That is, a fractal contains unlimited copies of itself. Fractals offer shapes which more closely approximate natural shapes such as clouds, coastlines, trees, ferns and so on. Many natural shapes are fractals because they look the same regardless of how far you zoom in on them. For example a line that approximates a mile of coastline from an aerial view will look prety much like one that approximates a foot of the coastline as viewed on earth. A boulder looks a lot like a rock, which looks a lot like a pebble, which looks a lot like a grain of sand, depending on your view.

See Also: MANDELBROT; MANICEPTION; FIBONACCI; KEYNOTE

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