The Yiddish word mandelbrot literally means almond bread, a reference to its common ingredient of almonds. It is typically formed by baking a loaf which is then cut into small slabs and twice-baked in order to form a crunchy exterior. sort of like biscotti.
This has absolutely nothing to do with fractals; I just thought I’d toss it in for randomness, like croutons on a Caesar salad.
Fractals freak me out but they’re also super cool and I decided to learn a little bit about them since I’m immobile for a couple of days, recovering from a bad reaction to a pneumonia vaccination. I felt as I imagined it would feel to be run over by a big rig that broke every single bone in my body.
The more I learn, the more fascinated I am by fractals. I even met a real fractalist on Twitter and he
gave me permission to use his beautiful art. Check him out! Daniel Travers/ Multimedia Producer & Artist www.redideostudio.com
According to Wiki, Benoit B. Mandelbrot (20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010) was a Polish-born French and American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as “the art of roughness” of physical phenomena and “the uncontrolled element in life”.
He referred to himself as a “fractalist” and is recognized for his contribution to the field of fractal geometry, also coining the word “fractal”, as well as developing a theory of “roughness and self-similarity” in nature.
Toward the end of his career, he was Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University, where he was the oldest professor in Yale’s history to receive tenure.
Fractals are also found in human pursuits, such as music, painting, architecture, and stock market prices. Mandelbrot believed that fractals, far from being unnatural, were in many ways more intuitive and natural than the artificially smooth objects of traditional Euclidean geometry:
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. (Mandelbrot, in his introduction to The Fractal Geometry of Nature)
Did you know there’s a Fractal Foundation? https://fractalfoundation.org/
A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop. Driven by recursion, fractals are images of dynamic systems – the pictures of Chaos. Or in my opinion, of heart-centered LOVE, an infinite woven pattern of infinity. Not finite. Not at all.
A curve or geometric figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. Fractals are useful in modeling structures (such as eroded coastlines or snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth, fluid turbulence, and galaxy formation.
The most famous fractal equation is the 2D Mandelbrot set, named after Mandelbrot in 1975.
What is Mandelbrot set zoom?
It’s an image made purely of mathematics. It is formed by converting the coordinates of each pixel into a complex number and then iterating it with a simple equation. We can actually zoom into the picture by narrowing the range of the axes and get a better look at the detail along the edge of the set.
The spirals of florets on a Romanesco broccoli form natural fractals.
As it turns out, a lot of plant life grows in patterns that mimic the Fibonacci sequence with petals, leaves, or (in the case of Romanesco broccoli) tiny buds called “meristems” that have 1,2,3,5,8,21 and more spirals coming from the center.
***I discovered an interesting article about fractals and the Corona virus: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-fractal-solution-to-coronavirus/
A special type of fractal is a Koch Snowflake.This fractal starts as an equilateral triangle.
With each iteration of the pattern, the object becomes more and more like a snowflake.
You could say a snowflake is a natural example of the Koch Snowflake fractal.
Other examples of fractals patterns in nature include trees, mountain ranges, lightning, and coastal lines. http://www.enf.org/outdoor-academy-blog/snowflakes/

Sorry to hear about your vaccination reaction. That’s rough. I hope you are feeling better and get up and around soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I got the flu one last week and felt bad for a couple of days but THIS one was really tough-glad I didn’t get them at the same time, though-Did you get yours this year?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nope. I’m not an anti-vaxxer, but I also chose not to.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve only gotten the flu vaccine a couple of times and this was the first pneumonia one, only cos of covid and my asthma. I am skeptical of putting anything foreign in my body!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have hard decisions to make these days.
LikeLike
Glad you’re feeling better but sorry that you had an adverse reaction! YIKES! We have to be so careful…I was told I need to get a flu vaccine but I’m putting it off because I have never had one before so I don’t know if I’ll have any side effects and there’s too much going on right now to be caught off guard and be sick…stay healthy and take care of you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it’s important this year because of the threat of a dual virus hitting us. I’ve ignored my doc’s recommendations in the past. The flu one wasn’t so bad but the pneumonia one was way worse, although I’ve completely recovered from it now. Think about it!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: …to an infinite degree | Enchanted Seashells by Princess Rosebud
Thank you for featuring my art in your article! The world of fractals is very fascinating indeed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome! Fractals tax my tiny brain to understand. Your art is beautiful.
LikeLike