What do you think?
Rate this book
Benoit Mandelbrot: Reshaping the World
Most people have never heard of Benoit Mandelbrot, but it’s hard to imagine anyone who hasn’t seen the effects of his work. In fact, the movie and gaming industries and even smartphones would be very different today if not for Mandelbrot, a Polish Jew who escaped Nazism to become one of the most important mathematicians of the twentieth century.
Mandelbrot had a talent for envisioning geometric solutions to mathematical problems, but for the first part of his career, he seemed to his colleagues to be disorganized and unfocused. However, although Mandelbrot had been investigating topics in an array of different fields, he had begun seeing the same geometric functions and characteristics in all of them, from coastlines to financial trends to telephone signals to galaxies. His ability to find connections among such seemingly unrelated subjects led him to the discovery of fractal geometry. His work at IBM with the first computers enabled him to explore and expand upon his ideas, opening up an amazing new mathematical realm. Others took what he did and applied it to new areas, such as economics, telecommunications, medicine, biology, and even art, and his work was the foundation for the development of smartphone antennas, movie animation magic, and much more.
We have always lived in a fractal world, but Mandelbrot is the one who showed it to us.
This book includes a variety of color images that illustrate fractal figures and patterns to enhance the explanations and for greater visual enjoyment of the narrative. There’s also a “Doing the Math” section at the end of the book so that readers can try working out the math themselves!
This book was named to the 2022 Best STEM Books list by the National Science Teaching Association and the Children's Book Council.
Mandelbrot had a talent for envisioning geometric solutions to mathematical problems, but for the first part of his career, he seemed to his colleagues to be disorganized and unfocused. However, although Mandelbrot had been investigating topics in an array of different fields, he had begun seeing the same geometric functions and characteristics in all of them, from coastlines to financial trends to telephone signals to galaxies. His ability to find connections among such seemingly unrelated subjects led him to the discovery of fractal geometry. His work at IBM with the first computers enabled him to explore and expand upon his ideas, opening up an amazing new mathematical realm. Others took what he did and applied it to new areas, such as economics, telecommunications, medicine, biology, and even art, and his work was the foundation for the development of smartphone antennas, movie animation magic, and much more.
We have always lived in a fractal world, but Mandelbrot is the one who showed it to us.
This book includes a variety of color images that illustrate fractal figures and patterns to enhance the explanations and for greater visual enjoyment of the narrative. There’s also a “Doing the Math” section at the end of the book so that readers can try working out the math themselves!
This book was named to the 2022 Best STEM Books list by the National Science Teaching Association and the Children's Book Council.
Paperback
20 people want to read
About the author
Robert A. Black
26 books4 followersA long time ago - well, in the 1980s - I was a college student who landed a job writing for Nickelodeon's hit children's TV show, You Can't Do That On Television. Today, I still write for the same age group, but with a lot less green slime.
More recently, I've completed my Mathematical Lives biography series with Royal Fireworks Press, with books from the series placing on the National Science Teaching Association's "Best STEM Books" list two years in a row. Currently working on new ways to teach STEM concepts through storytelling.
More recently, I've completed my Mathematical Lives biography series with Royal Fireworks Press, with books from the series placing on the National Science Teaching Association's "Best STEM Books" list two years in a row. Currently working on new ways to teach STEM concepts through storytelling.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 11, 2022
This is perfect for middle school kids and up to make math more interesting and help understand the people who came up with mathematical concepts. Well written and great concept. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 of 1 review