# Mandelbrot's in Heaven **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 16, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356 "2010-10-16T16:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/1 "2010-10-16T16:26:55Z")
Now that he is dead. [Benoit Mandelbrot, Mathematician, Dies at 85](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/us/17mandelbrot.html) He’s the fractals dude if you don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/2 "2010-10-16T16:47:08Z")
crunch some numbers in his memory. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/3 "2010-10-16T16:52:48Z")
The OP’s title, btw, is a reference to [this song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIlwFpz9s_I). ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/4 "2010-10-16T17:08:00Z")
Awwww… I remember when I discovered fractals and found great metaphysical enlightenment in the [Mendelbrot Ganesha](http://www.sol.com.au/kor/gan.htm). Some how, that proved to me that there was God In Science (or vice-versa). ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/5 "2010-10-16T23:28:09Z")
Wow. I remember learning about and being fascinated with fractals and the Mandelbrot Set in my late teens. Another pioneer who helped to enhance my understanding of and interest in mathematics is gone. I find this to be very sad news. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/6 "2010-10-16T23:57:36Z")
This would be a great Google tribute occasion Brian ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/7 "2010-10-17T00:20:22Z")
The nice folks at TED linked to [one of his lectures](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/benoit_mandelbrot_fractals_the_art_of_roughness.html) from February. Fascinating. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/8 "2010-10-17T00:52:59Z")
Been a long time since I thought about him, and when I did computers were very slow and computing a view took a long time. I have a much faster computer now with multiple processors. Are there any free Windows programs to explore the Mandelbrot and Julia sets, preferable ones that use all my processors? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/9 "2010-10-17T01:38:12Z")
I never understood why Mandelbrot fractals were such a big deal. Mystifying wiggly shapes, regular and yet random. Or something incomprehensible like that. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/10 "2010-10-17T01:49:51Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I never understood why Mandelbrot fractals were such a big deal. Mystifying wiggly shapes, regular and yet random. Or something incomprehensible like that. Well they’re not random. What’s fascinating about them is it’s a very simple formula that when graphed on the complex plane makes pretty pictures. And you can zoom in on these pictures again and again and get repeated patterns, no matter how far you zoom in. If you’ve ever seen a Mandelbrot screensaver you know how hypnotic they can be. I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Mandelbrot when I was in high school. I was part of a program at my school that went to IBM’s TJ Watson Labs in Hawthorne every Saturday to hear a different research scientist give a brief lecture about their work. Mandelbrot wasn’t one of the lecturers, but he stopped by to deliver a few words after the lecture of another mathematician who was working on something uninteresting that I don’t remember. I shook his hand and all I could think of to say was “I love your screensaver!” He found that hilarious and thanked me. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/11 "2010-10-17T02:00:51Z")
No, he’s not in heaven. He’s headed there, but unfortunately is on an infintely regressive loop. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/12 "2010-10-17T09:34:40Z")
Mandelbrot has just set off from one end of the coastline of Britain, and heaven is at the other end, so it’ll take him a while. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/13 "2010-10-17T14:47:26Z")
Loved this bit from the [NYT obit](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/us/17mandelbrot.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=mandelbrot&st=cse): > [@NYT](#): > > “If you take the beginning and the end, I have had a conventional career,” he said, referring to his prestigious appointments in Paris and at Yale. “But it was not a straight line between the beginning and the end. It was a very crooked line.” ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandelbrots-in-heaven/557356/14 "2010-10-17T19:34:28Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > Mandelbrot has just set off from one end of the coastline of Britain, and heaven is at the other end, so it’ll take him a while. Heh. 🙂 The thing is, traveling along the edge of a fractal plane, whether heaven is on the other end of the British coastline, or an inch away, he will never get there. Poor Dr. Mandelbrot; always moving forward, yet trapped forever at the beginning of his journey.