Outside the Newton Institute in Cambridge, UK	Dec 12-13, 1997 meeting at Yale on teaching courses about fractals. From left to right: Michael Frame, Bob Devaney, Ron Lewis, Doug Ravenel, Benoit Mandelbrot, Sandy Fillebrown, Ken Monks, Melkana Brakalova, and Miguel Garcia.

Some links to websites that discuss his life and work.

• Wikipedia article, a good place to start.

  "Mandelbrot worked on a wide range of mathematical problems, including mathematical physics and quantitative finance, but is best known as the father of fractal geometry. He coined the term fractal and described the Mandelbrot set. Mandelbrot extensively popularized his work, writing books and giving lectures aimed at the general public."

• Related Wikipedia articles

  • Mandelbrot set Good explanation, lavishly illustrated.
  • Fractal
  • Chaos theory

• Mandelbrot's home page

  "Seeks a measure of order in physical, mathematical or social phenomena that are characterized by abundant data but extreme sample variability. The surprising esthetic value of many of his discoveries and their unexpected usefulness in teaching have made him an eloquent spokesman for the 'unity of knowing and feeling.' "

• Fractals, Graphics, and Mathematics Education The book that grew out of the 1997 Yale meeting. This Amazon link includes a preview. Here are links to some portions of it.

  • Foreword by Lynn Steen
  • Chapter 1 by Mandelbrot and Frame
  • Chapter 3 by Mandelbrot
  • Chapter 16 by me
  • Google books link

• Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85

  New York Times obituary.

• The Colors of Infinity

  Hour long film about fractals made in 1995 by the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke (Wikipedia article), in 6 video installments. Highly recommended.
  
  "Arthur C. Clarke presents this unusual documentary on the mathematical discovery of the Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) in the visually spectacular world of fractal geometry. This show relates the science of the M-Set to nature in a way that seems to identify the hand of God in the design of the universe itself. Dr. Mandelbrot in 1980 discovered the infinitely complex geometrical shape called the Mandelbrot Set using a very simple equation with computers and graphics."

• Mandelbrot set zooms

  • Insanely deep fractal zoom A ten minute journey into the Mandelbrot set. "The final magnification is e.214. Want some perspective? a magnification of e.12 would increase the size of a particle to the same as the earths orbit! e.21 would make a particle look the same size as the milky way and e.42 would be equal to the universe. This zoom smashes all of them all away. If you were 'actually' traveling into the fractal your speed would be faster than the speed of light."
  • Fractal zoomer An interactive program for zooming in on the Mandelbrot set.
  • Mandelbrot Set Zoom Four minute video accompained by a song about Mandelbrot.
  • Deepest Mandelbrot Set Zoom Animation ever - a New Record! 10^275 (2.1E275 or 2^915) Five minutes, impressive.
  • "Deepest Mandelbrot Set Zoom Animation ever - a New Record! 10^275" : Extension to 10^598 Seven minutes, even more impressive.
  • Mandelbrot Ultra Hard zoom. 250 000 000 iterations (Ancient record) Five minutes, and more visually interesting.

• Explanations of Mandelbrot and Julia sets

  • Mandelbrot Set: how it is generated 8 minute video.
  • How Julia set images are generated 10 minute video.
  • Introduction to Complex Numbers 7 minute video, helpful for understanding the two videos above.