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Clouds Are Not Spheres: A Portrait Of Benoit Mandelbrot, The Founding Father Of Fractal Geometry: A Portrait of Benoît Mandelbrot, The Founding Father of Fractal Geometry
The time is right, following Beno�t Mandelbrot's death in 2010, to publish this landmark book about the life and work of this maverick math genius.
This compact book celebrates the life and achievements of Beno�t Mandelbrot with the ideas of fractals presented in a way that can be understood by the interested lay-person. Mathematics is largely avoided. Instead, Mandelbrot's ideas and insights are described using a combination of intuition and pictures. The early part of the book is largely biographical, but it portrays well how Mandelbrot's life and ideas developed and led to the fractal notions that are surveyed in the latter parts of the book.
CLOUDS PROMO from NIGEL LESMOIR-GORDON on Vimeo.
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
The Early Years
Caltech and to France Once More
The USA, France and IBM
The Birth of Fractal Geometry
The Mandelbrot Set
The Fractal Geometry of Nature
The Art of Fractals
Practical Fractals
In Retrospect
Benoit and Nigel
Awards and Publications
Aimed at a general inquisitively-minded readership. It will appeal to those seeking to understand fractal geometry in particular and mathematics in general. The book will appeal to readers of all ages. It will not be technically difficult or demand a deep understanding of mathematics. It will find a wide readership as a popular science book as well as appealing to academics, who like to read about the lives, struggles and achievements of their fellow scientists. The book is written for a very broad audience with minimal scientific or mathematical background. It may interest those who have come across fractals or the Mandelbrot set in some context and who want to find out more about what fractals are and about their progenitor.
Beno�t Mandelbrot;Fractal Geometry;Fractals;The Mandelbrot Set;Math;Geometry of "There's much to recommend in this text. Nigel's collection of quotations taken from interviews he conducted provide valuable insights, many unavailable in print in any other place. Also, Nigel has assembled nice examples in chapters 7 and 8, some are familiar, some are less well-known, some will surprise readers. His overall picture is a useful addition to the literature about one of the most creative scientists of the 20th century. I look forward to seeing it in print."
Michael Frame
Yale University
"With its stunning pictures and lucid text, Clouds Are Not Spheres celebrates the works and the life of this remarkable man."
Emeritus Professor Ian Stewart
University of Warwick
"It is a fine popular biography that will appeal to a far wider audience than any other book which focuses on Mandelbrot."
Nathan Cohen
Fractal Antenna Systems, Inc.
"I read Nigel's Clouds Are Not Spheres and enjoyed it very much ... Beno�t influenced a new generation of mathematicians and scientists for whom fractals are an integral part of their knowledge, vision, applications and enjoyment ... I recommend this publication."
Michael Shlesinger
Office of Naval Research, Arlington, USA
"The book is clearly written and easy to read and the illustrations are well-chosen and helpful. The reader will com
This compact book celebrates the life and achievements of Beno�t Mandelbrot with the ideas of fractals presented in a way that can be understood by the interested lay-person. Mathematics is largely avoided. Instead, Mandelbrot's ideas and insights are described using a combination of intuition and pictures. The early part of the book is largely biographical, but it portrays well how Mandelbrot's life and ideas developed and led to the fractal notions that are surveyed in the latter parts of the book.
CLOUDS PROMO from NIGEL LESMOIR-GORDON on Vimeo.
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
The Early Years
Caltech and to France Once More
The USA, France and IBM
The Birth of Fractal Geometry
The Mandelbrot Set
The Fractal Geometry of Nature
The Art of Fractals
Practical Fractals
In Retrospect
Benoit and Nigel
Awards and Publications
Aimed at a general inquisitively-minded readership. It will appeal to those seeking to understand fractal geometry in particular and mathematics in general. The book will appeal to readers of all ages. It will not be technically difficult or demand a deep understanding of mathematics. It will find a wide readership as a popular science book as well as appealing to academics, who like to read about the lives, struggles and achievements of their fellow scientists. The book is written for a very broad audience with minimal scientific or mathematical background. It may interest those who have come across fractals or the Mandelbrot set in some context and who want to find out more about what fractals are and about their progenitor.
Beno�t Mandelbrot;Fractal Geometry;Fractals;The Mandelbrot Set;Math;Geometry of "There's much to recommend in this text. Nigel's collection of quotations taken from interviews he conducted provide valuable insights, many unavailable in print in any other place. Also, Nigel has assembled nice examples in chapters 7 and 8, some are familiar, some are less well-known, some will surprise readers. His overall picture is a useful addition to the literature about one of the most creative scientists of the 20th century. I look forward to seeing it in print."
Michael Frame
Yale University
"With its stunning pictures and lucid text, Clouds Are Not Spheres celebrates the works and the life of this remarkable man."
Emeritus Professor Ian Stewart
University of Warwick
"It is a fine popular biography that will appeal to a far wider audience than any other book which focuses on Mandelbrot."
Nathan Cohen
Fractal Antenna Systems, Inc.
"I read Nigel's Clouds Are Not Spheres and enjoyed it very much ... Beno�t influenced a new generation of mathematicians and scientists for whom fractals are an integral part of their knowledge, vision, applications and enjoyment ... I recommend this publication."
Michael Shlesinger
Office of Naval Research, Arlington, USA
"The book is clearly written and easy to read and the illustrations are well-chosen and helpful. The reader will com
125 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 12, 2018
1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon
19 books14 followers NIGEL LESMOIR-GORDON
I came into this world in the midst of the Second World War, appearing among the soaring academic towers of Cambridge – the last outpost of ‘civilisation’ before the black-soiled, windswept fens ran their endless way up to King’s Lynn and The Wash. I grew up in the austere and reactionary spirit of post-war England. People felt lucky to be alive. So many had died and there were shortages. Most of our ships had been sunk and we lived under the heavy-hanging threat of nuclear annihilation.
By the time I had made it into my teens Cambridge had blossomed and become prosperous and I grew up in a privileged world. I was 13 when I went off to board at Oundle School and Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel burst incandescently upon the world. I began writing at Oundle and published poems and short stories in the UK, the USA and in France. I toured the UK performing with my poetry & jazz group. My interest in film took me to the London School of Film Technique in 1965. When I left Cambridge to go to the school I moved into a flat in Cromwell Road, South Kensington – the infamous ‘101’. When David Gale wrote about 101 in The Independent he recalled:
“As the 60s began to generate heat, I found myself running with a fast crowd. I had moved into a flat near the Royal College of Art. I shared the flat with some close friends from Cambridge, including Syd Barrett, who was busy becoming a rock star with Pink Floyd. A few hundred yards down the street at 101 Cromwell Road, our preternaturally cool friend Nigel was running the hipster equivalent of an arty salon. Between our place and his, there passed the cream of London alternative society - poets, painters, film-makers, charlatans, activists, bores and self-styled visionaries. It was a good time for name-dropping: how could I forget the time at Nigel’s when I came across Allen Ginsberg asleep on a divan with a tiny white kitten on his bare chest? And wasn't that Mick Jagger visible through the fumes? Look, there's Nigel's postcard from William Burroughs, who looks forward to meeting him when next he visits London!”
During a weekend spent in Cambridge with old friends as part of my experimental work at film school I shot the now cult-movie classic Syd Barrett’s First Trip.
When I joined the industry as an editor I worked for Hugh Hudson, director of Chariots of Fire, on TV commercials and documentaries. The film Performance was produced from his Chelsea studios. In 1968 I was commissioned by Mick Jagger to co-write a screenplay with Christopher Gibbs (the set designer on Performance) called The Quest. Marianne Faithfull writes about this project in her biography Faithfull. Mick, Keith and Marianne were already cast and keen to make it. The script we wrote drew on Arthurian legend, Celtic mythology and romantic poetry. Donovan had been writing music for the film and was disappointed when the project stalled due to other Rolling Stones commitments. To make up for this he suggested that I produce and direct a film of him making music sailing through the islands of the Aegean Sea with a small acoustic band. The band was called Open Road and the completed 30-minute film was There is an Ocean.
I then moved to the BBC as an editor, cutting dramas and documentaries for two years. I went on to work with Pink Floyd, 10cc, Squeeze, Rainbow, Joe Cocker, Big Country, Wings, Paul Nicholas and Leo Sayer amongst others in the 70’s.
I concentrated on commercials and corporate videos throughout the 80s. I wrote and directed Regiment a documentary about the Royal Air Force’s Infantry Regiment before I made the award-winning television documentary The Colours of Infinity, presented by Sir Arthur C. Clarke with music by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd in 1993. The Colours of Infinity has been broadcast in over fifty territories. It brought the Mandelbrot set and the subject of fractals to the attention of the general public for the first time.
I also directed The Bobby Charlton Story
I came into this world in the midst of the Second World War, appearing among the soaring academic towers of Cambridge – the last outpost of ‘civilisation’ before the black-soiled, windswept fens ran their endless way up to King’s Lynn and The Wash. I grew up in the austere and reactionary spirit of post-war England. People felt lucky to be alive. So many had died and there were shortages. Most of our ships had been sunk and we lived under the heavy-hanging threat of nuclear annihilation.
By the time I had made it into my teens Cambridge had blossomed and become prosperous and I grew up in a privileged world. I was 13 when I went off to board at Oundle School and Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel burst incandescently upon the world. I began writing at Oundle and published poems and short stories in the UK, the USA and in France. I toured the UK performing with my poetry & jazz group. My interest in film took me to the London School of Film Technique in 1965. When I left Cambridge to go to the school I moved into a flat in Cromwell Road, South Kensington – the infamous ‘101’. When David Gale wrote about 101 in The Independent he recalled:
“As the 60s began to generate heat, I found myself running with a fast crowd. I had moved into a flat near the Royal College of Art. I shared the flat with some close friends from Cambridge, including Syd Barrett, who was busy becoming a rock star with Pink Floyd. A few hundred yards down the street at 101 Cromwell Road, our preternaturally cool friend Nigel was running the hipster equivalent of an arty salon. Between our place and his, there passed the cream of London alternative society - poets, painters, film-makers, charlatans, activists, bores and self-styled visionaries. It was a good time for name-dropping: how could I forget the time at Nigel’s when I came across Allen Ginsberg asleep on a divan with a tiny white kitten on his bare chest? And wasn't that Mick Jagger visible through the fumes? Look, there's Nigel's postcard from William Burroughs, who looks forward to meeting him when next he visits London!”
During a weekend spent in Cambridge with old friends as part of my experimental work at film school I shot the now cult-movie classic Syd Barrett’s First Trip.
When I joined the industry as an editor I worked for Hugh Hudson, director of Chariots of Fire, on TV commercials and documentaries. The film Performance was produced from his Chelsea studios. In 1968 I was commissioned by Mick Jagger to co-write a screenplay with Christopher Gibbs (the set designer on Performance) called The Quest. Marianne Faithfull writes about this project in her biography Faithfull. Mick, Keith and Marianne were already cast and keen to make it. The script we wrote drew on Arthurian legend, Celtic mythology and romantic poetry. Donovan had been writing music for the film and was disappointed when the project stalled due to other Rolling Stones commitments. To make up for this he suggested that I produce and direct a film of him making music sailing through the islands of the Aegean Sea with a small acoustic band. The band was called Open Road and the completed 30-minute film was There is an Ocean.
I then moved to the BBC as an editor, cutting dramas and documentaries for two years. I went on to work with Pink Floyd, 10cc, Squeeze, Rainbow, Joe Cocker, Big Country, Wings, Paul Nicholas and Leo Sayer amongst others in the 70’s.
I concentrated on commercials and corporate videos throughout the 80s. I wrote and directed Regiment a documentary about the Royal Air Force’s Infantry Regiment before I made the award-winning television documentary The Colours of Infinity, presented by Sir Arthur C. Clarke with music by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd in 1993. The Colours of Infinity has been broadcast in over fifty territories. It brought the Mandelbrot set and the subject of fractals to the attention of the general public for the first time.
I also directed The Bobby Charlton Story
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 25, 2023
I met Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon in India. He was not as others! He distinguished himself with words, creative behaviors that were not ordinary. He had a mystery within him that was awaiting to be told! His wife was more sweet than sugar! More kind than love!
Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon is a pioneer of sorts! Going where few have gone. A wealth of experience and knowledge he beckons to share!
If you site and listen carefully, a mystic thread of truth spins out of his mouth and books that leaves the reader and listener a better person!
How, why does he do this? Because he's blessed.
You too can share in Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon experience and insight. Just sit quietly, listen, read and enjoy the journey!
Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon is a pioneer of sorts! Going where few have gone. A wealth of experience and knowledge he beckons to share!
If you site and listen carefully, a mystic thread of truth spins out of his mouth and books that leaves the reader and listener a better person!
How, why does he do this? Because he's blessed.
You too can share in Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon experience and insight. Just sit quietly, listen, read and enjoy the journey!
Displaying 1 of 1 review