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Benoit Mandelbrot

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Mathematician

The Resume

    (November 20, 1924-October 14, 2010)
    Born in Warsaw, Poland
    Pioneer of fractal geometry
    Namesake for the Mandelbrot set
    Wrote 'The Fractal Geometry of Nature' (1982)
    Held dual French-US citizenship

Why he might be annoying:

    His last name translates as 'almond bread.'
    He added a middle initial 'B.' to his name that did not actually stand for anything.
    He rarely proved his ideas rigorously, saying he preferred to 'stimulate the field by making bold and crazy conjectures.'
    Despite their name, he did not originate Mandelbrot sets.
    He said, 'I have played a strange role that none of my students dare to take.'
    Among much of the public, his fractal geometry is known more for producing cool-looking pictures than any practical application.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was married to Aliette Kagan for 55 years until his death.
    Fractal geometry was inspired by the seemingly simple question 'How long is the coastline of Britain,' for which the answer changes depending on how closely you look.
    Fractals proved useful in a wide range of disciplines, including cosmology (clustering of galaxies), economics (behavior of stock markets) and biology (folding in mammalian brains).
    In describing the usefulness of fractals compared to traditional Euclidean geometry, he noted, 'Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth.'
    He was described as 'more of a natural philosopher in the old tradition of Galileo or da Vinci than a modern mathematician.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 19 Votes: 52.63% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 58.82% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 14 Votes: 35.71% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 15 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 122 Votes: 55.74% Annoying