Fractals: Images of Chaos

by Hans Lauwerier

Provides a basic mathematical introduction to fractal geometry, the mathematics that lie behind chaos theory. This book attempts to communicate the relatively simple understanding of the subject to an audience with a basic mathematical education.

Genres: Mathematics, Science, Nonfiction, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

Reviews

[Steppenwulf]

Bought this for 1,50 euro in a 2nd hand shop. Its from 1989 ! Time of the first PC's. It has an appendix with a lot of GW Basic programs. The beauty of mathematics. The first baby steps of computer graphics. The nostalgia of DOS. It was the time grandfather had to put a lot of floppy disks in his "computer" before it even could talk to you. What is a "floppy disk" grandpa ? I already had a lot of fun installing DOSBox on my Windows 10. Next going to translate some GW Basic programs to Java. I know, I am getting sentimental. I will stop now.

[Santiago Zubieta]

I could only understand some parts because it was in Dutch and I didn't know it very well, still it is more visual than anything. It feels very retro, it even came with some code annex print-outs made with a dot-matrix printer! It is a 30+ year old book and it shows, but the fractals' math within it is timeless.

[Ethan]

Beautiful illustrations. The prose is your basic academic droning, not much there you couldn't find on wikipedia, but the pictures tell the whole story.

[Robert]

I inherited this book from a colleague. It is a simple introduction to fractals. It includes some basic information on what fractals are, the situations in which they arise, and how to program your ancient DOS computer to produce pictures of fractals. For a mathematician the book is too light-weight to be of interest, even if one wants a quick intro. For anyone else I don't think it is written and organized in a particularly enticing way. So, I honestly don't see who the audience would be, except perhaps a computer geek who wants to make some fractal pictures on an old DOS computer.

[Mike]

An okay book, but kind of boring, even for people who pick it up with a lot of interest in the topic.