Contents Notes |
Fractal geometry, based on recursive mathematical schemas, provides a means for modeling a great number of natural phenomena. For this reason, it is of increasing interest to physicists, chemists, biologists, and geographers, among others. A major quality of fractality is that it not only unifies phenomena previously thought to be anomalous or disparate in a single theoretical framework, but it also promotes a return to graphical treatment, which had been almost completely banished from scientific thought in favor of analysis. This book casts a new, lively light on scientific territories still not fully explored. It is designed for research workers, engineers, and experimentalists faced with problems of measure and action in heterogenous materials and environments. Several color plates illustrate the implications and consequences of this theory for most of the questions raised by the taking into consideration of time in a fractal space. pt. I. Theory and technique. The discovery of fractal geometry -- Measures of dimension; time in fractal geometry -- Derivatives of non-integral order -- Composition of fractal geometries -- pt. II. Applications. Measure and uncertainty -- Fractal morphogensis -- Fractal geometry and irreversibility -- Complexity. |