Added: 24-01-2011 17:01:01

Click here to see original video page

What do movie special effects, the stock market, heart attacks, and the rings of Saturn have in common? They’re all connected by a revolutionary branch of math called fractal geometry. Invented by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in the 1960s and 1970s, fractals have changed the way we see the world and opened up a vast new territory to scientific analysis and understanding. Mandelbrot coined the term fractals to suggest “fractured” and “fractional,” a nod to the new geometry’s focus on broken, wrinkled, and otherwise “rough” shapes. NOVA’s Hunting the Hidden Dimension tells the dramatic story of a group of pioneering mathematicians who took Mandelbrot’s invention from a mathematical curiosity that few took seriously to an approach that is touching nearly every branch of science and technology today, from cell phones to cardiac medicine to the study of tropical forests.

Tags: PBS Dimension

Url:

Embed:

Related Videos

Category