Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws: Minutes from an Infinite Paradise - Paperback

by Manfred Schroeder (Author)

As notable as the book's broad sweep is the author's good-natured, humorous presentation. The willing reader can sit back and enjoy an all-encompassing, irrepressibly enthusiastic tour, ranging from psycho physics to quasicrystals, from gambling strategies to Bach concertos, from the construction of Cantor sets to the design of concert halls. -- Physics Today
Such a richness of topics and amazing splendor of illustrations! -- Mathematics Magazine
An inviting exposition for a literate but not highly scientific audience. -- American Mathematical Monthly
This fascinating book explores the connections between chaos theory, physics, biology, and mathematics. Its award-winning computer graphics, optical illusions, and games illustrate the concept of self-similarity, a typical property of fractals. Author Manfred Schroeder -- hailed by Publishers Weekly as a modern Lewis Carroll -- conveys memorable insights in the form of puns and puzzles that relate abstract mathematics to everyday experience.
Excellent entertainment for readers with a grasp of algebra and some calculus, this book forms a fine university-level introduction to fractal math. Eight pages of color images clarify the text, along with numerous black-and-white illustrations.

Author Biography

A pioneer in the artistic potential of computer graphics, Manfred Schroeder is a world-renowned expert in acoustics. He served as a distinguished member of the research staff of AT & T Bell Laboratories for 33 years and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Goettigen, Germany.

Manfred Schroeder: Making Order Out of Chaos
Manfred Schroeder (1926-2009) was a German physicist who divided his professional time between Bell Labs and The University of Gottingen. He was a world-renowned authority on acoustics and held numerous patents in many fields. Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws: Minutes from an Infinite Paradise, reprinted by Dover in 2009, is a feast for the reader with a grasp of algebra and some calculus. He or she will find much to enjoy and think about between the covers of this unique book.

Critical Acclaim for Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws:
Readers of James Gleick's 1989 bestseller, Chaos, The Making of a New Science, will find the revolution predicted there in full swing in this advanced look at 'self-similarity, ' one of chaos theory's most appealing applications. Self-similarity in computer graphics yields the awesome fractal mountain patterns that have made chaos a visible theory for many nonmathematicians. Readers with good command of calculus and some physics will appreciate how far chaos theory has penetrated theoretical physics, biology and the practice of research as described in puns, illustrations and puzzles by this 20th-century Lewis Carroll. Without those skills, however, readers may stand like Alice before a small door that opens on strange new wonders of the physical world, the extended horizons of number theory and advanced math recreation. -- Publisher's Weekly

As notable as the book's broad sweep is the author's good-natured, humorous presentation. The willing reader can sit back and enjoy an all-encompassing, irrepressibly enthusiastic tour, ranging from psycho-physics to quasicrystals, from gambling strategies to Bach concertos, from the construction of Cantor Sets to the design of concert halls -- Physics Today

Such a richness of topics and amazing splendor of illustrations. -- Mathematics Magazine