Beauty by numbers
Country Life UK|November 27, 2024
What do spiders' webs, snowflakes and snail shells have in common? They all contain fractals: Nature's exquisite, endlessly repeating mathematical pattern. Deborah Nicholls-Lee unpicks their complex geometry
Deborah Nicholls-Lee
Beauty by numbers

A FRACTAL, according to Franco-Polish mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot, is 'a way of seeing infinity'. Simply put, it is a pattern that appears to self-replicate indefinitely, constantly reproducing an imitation of the previous shape. The term dates back to 1975, when Mandelbrot-to whom it is credited-applied the mathematics of theoretical fractional dimensions to the geometric patterning found in the natural world. Fractals are everywhere, even within the human body: our nervous system, blood vessels and the structure of our brain and lungs are all examples.

The archetypal fractal takes a form that is a blueprint for the smaller elements within it. The trunk and boughs of a tree, for example, echo the forked forms within the tree as the branches split into twigs, which, in turn, throw off shiny new shoots. The flat-planed geometry that we often use to describe forms is inadequate when it comes to conceptualising them: 'Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles and bark is not smooth,' Mandelbrot asserted.

Fractals are all around us throughout the year, but, as the cold starts to bite, they become that much more obvious. Acorns in lacy caps litter the ground, pine cones are stuffed in children's pockets and the most flamboyant edible fractal, Romanesco broccoli, is ready to be harvested as autumn arrives. With the first frosts come intricate ice fractals, impossibly delicate and robustly infinite in equal measure.

この記事は Country Life UK の November 27, 2024 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Country Life UK の November 27, 2024 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

COUNTRY LIFE UKのその他の記事すべて表示
Give it some stick
Country Life UK

Give it some stick

Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart

time-read
3 分  |
December 25, 2024
Paper escapes
Country Life UK

Paper escapes

Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024

time-read
3 分  |
December 25, 2024
For love, not money
Country Life UK

For love, not money

This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste

time-read
4 分  |
December 25, 2024
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Country Life UK

Mary I: more bruised than bloody

Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn

time-read
2 分  |
December 25, 2024
A love supreme
Country Life UK

A love supreme

Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different

time-read
5 分  |
December 25, 2024
Private views
Country Life UK

Private views

One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that

time-read
4 分  |
December 25, 2024
Shhhhhh...
Country Life UK

Shhhhhh...

THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.

time-read
2 分  |
December 25, 2024
Mission impossible
Country Life UK

Mission impossible

Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story

time-read
4 分  |
December 25, 2024
When a perfect storm hits
Country Life UK

When a perfect storm hits

Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals

time-read
6 分  |
December 25, 2024
Give the dog a bone
Country Life UK

Give the dog a bone

Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course

time-read
4 分  |
December 25, 2024