The Fractal Geometry of the Mandelbrot Set: How the Computer has Beautified Mathematics
Time and place
12:30 PM on Thursday, March 29th, 2012;
Prof. Robert Devaney (Boston University)
Abstract
In this lecture we describe the beautiful mathematical objects known as the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. We will discuss the algorithms for computing these objects. While the Mandelbrot set is extremely complicated from a geometric point of view, we will show that, as long as you know how to add and how to count, you can understand this geometry more or less completely. We will encounter many famous mathematical objects in the Mandelbrot set, like the Farey tree and the Fibonacci sequence. And we will find many soon-to-be-famous objects as well, like the "Devaney" sequence. There might even be a joke or two in the talk.
