Fractals, the Thumb Print of God

Well, what did you think of Mandelbrot’s fractal? The images we just saw were computer generated using a simple mathematical equation. What appeared to be movement was created by the equation causing energy patterns to flow through very tiny, evenly spaced points on the screen called pixels and making them glow.

What’s so important about fractals that we would want to do a service about them? Well for mathematicians it meant finally being able to visualize the possibility of infinity, once they had computers powerful enough to graph a very simple equation and repeat it billions of times. The result was a beautifully complex and complete form, which did not lose any of its essential character regardless of how infinitely large or infinitely small it became. Can you imagine how Mandelbrot felt the first time he thought that he was looking at infinity-and then to have it be so powerfully simple, visually stunning, and endless? There is not much space between infinity and eternity, which is why this particular fractal was dubbed “the thumb print of God.”
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