Analysis on fractals or calculus on fractals is a generalization of calculus on smooth manifolds to calculus on fractals.

In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illustrated in successive magnifications of the Mandelbrot set.

<mathematics, graphics> A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a smaller copy of the whole. Fractals are generally self-similar (bits look like the whole) and independent of scale (they look similar, no matter how close you zoom in). Many mathematical structures are fractals; e.g. {Sierpinski triangle}, Koch snowflake, Peano curve, Mandelbrot set and Lorenz attractor. Fractals also describe many real-world objects that do not have simple geometric shapes, such as clouds, mountains, turbulence, and coastlines. Benoit Mandelbrot, the discoverer of the Mandelbrot set, coined the term "fractal" in 1975 from the Latin fractus or "to break". He defines a fractal as a set for which the Hausdorff Besicovich dimension strictly exceeds the topological dimension. However, he is not satisfied with this definition as it excludes sets one would consider fractals. {sci.fractals FAQ (ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/usenet-by-group/sci.fractals/)}. See also fractal compression, fractal dimension, {Iterated Function System}. Usenet newsgroups: news:sci.fractals, news:alt.binaries.pictures.fractals, news:comp.graphics. ["The Fractal Geometry of Nature", Benoit Mandelbrot]. [Are there non-self-similar fractals?] (1997-07-02)

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According to Benoit Mandelbrot, "A fractal is by definition a set for which the Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension strictly exceeds the topological dimension."

Genuine FractalsImaging Resources product reviewgraphics.com product reviewMac News articleDesignPreference product review is a Photoshop plug-in developed and distributed by onOne Software of Portland, Oregon.

The Beauty of Fractals is a 1986 book by Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Peter Richter which publicises the fields of complex dynamics, chaos theory and the concept of fractals. It is lavishly illustrated and as a mathematics book became an unusual success.

Patterns in nature are visible regularities of form found in the natural world. These patterns recur in different contexts and can sometimes be modelled mathematically.