Clouds are not Spheres

This film tells the story of the life and work of Benoit Mandelbrot. A great innovator and discoverer of the Mandelbrot set and fractal geometry, Mandelbrot is a highly respected mathematician. Here, he tells his story about finding fractals and creating a new way of geometry.

Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line. – Benoit Mandelbrot

These observations were the starting point for Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010) to find out what lies beyond the “usual” euclidean Geometry. What he found in the 80s is what we now know as fractals and fractal geometry.

In this movie by Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon accompanies Martin Shaw and Mandelbrot into the world of fractals.

Get to know Benoît Mandelbrot and learn about his way to discovering this new way of geometry. His mathematical thinking and his ability to imagine any problem in a geometric way helped him to become one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century.

His fractal structures can be found all around us. And their special properties open up a new way of mathematics. Fractals have some special properties, for example they can assume infinite length in a finite area. The are recursive and self-similar structures.