TEDGlobal 2007: Session 4: Ron Eglash

ByRamon Thomas

Ron Eglash African FractalsRon Eglash is a mathematician and the author of African Fractals. According to him, concepts of fractal geometry resonate throughout many facets of African culture. He started out giving us a brief history of fractals.

In the early 1900s, Helge von Koch was frustrated with the complex definition and set out to simplify the understanding. This led to the famous Koch snowflake illustration. In 1977, Benoit Mandelbrot brought fractals into the mainstream. He coined the term fractal to describe self-similar structures. With a Fulbright scholarship, he began travelling around Africa doing his research and interviewing people.

This was a complex presentation to describe. Again, I think Ethan Zuckerman did a superb job doing so on his blog here.

 

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