What Are Fractals?

Caroline Archer
IntuitionMath
Published in
6 min readJul 4, 2023

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Have you ever been in a room filled with mirrors, and you caught an infinite amount of yourself in the corner of your eye? Then you’ve experienced a fractal.

When Were Fractals Discovered/Invented?
Where are Fractals Found in Nature?
What are Fractals in Mathematics?
How are Fractals Formed?
Why Do Fractals Exist?
Why are Fractals Scary?

Photo by Glitch Lab App on Unsplash

When Were Fractals Discovered/Invented?

fractal, in mathematics, any of a class of complex geometric shapes that commonly have “fractional dimension,” a concept first introduced by the mathematician Felix Hausdorff in 1918.

Where are Fractals Found in Nature?

Fractals, with their repetitive and infinitely complex patterns, are a fascinating mathematical concept that can surprisingly be found in various forms in nature. These self-similar structures, where each part is a reduced-scale copy of the whole, demonstrate an intriguing blend of order and chaos that is characteristic of the natural world.

One of the most common examples of fractals in nature is trees. The tree branching pattern is a prime example of a fractal. Each branch, regardless of its size, has…

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IntuitionMath
IntuitionMath

Published in IntuitionMath

Some mathematical concepts are more fundamental than others. Without a firm grasp of the earlier principles, progressing through math is a daunting task. This is our attempt to explain foundational math concepts intuitively.