Benoit Mandelbrot: Quick Facts

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Oct. 10, 2026

Facts

Born	November 20, 1924 • Warsaw • Poland • (Birthday in 7 days)
Died	October 14, 2010 (aged 85) • Cambridge • Massachusetts
Notable Works	“The Fractal Geometry of Nature”
Subjects Of Study	Mandelbrot set • fractal

Photos

$Mandelbrot setDuring the late 20th century, Polish mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot helped popularize the fractal that bears his name. The fundamental set contains all complex numbers C such that the iterative equation Zn + 1 = Zn2 + C stays finite for all n starting with Z0 = 0. As shown here, the set of points that remain finite through all iterations is white, with darker colours showing how quickly other values diverge to infinity. The fractal edge between points that remain finite and those that diverge to infinity is extremely complicated, with self-repeating features that can be seen at all scales.$

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$Sierpiński gasketPolish mathematician Wacław Sierpiński described the fractal that bears his name in 1915, although the design as an art motif dates at least to 13th-century Italy. Begin with a solid equilateral triangle, and remove the triangle formed by connecting the midpoints of each side. The midpoints of the sides of the resulting three internal triangles are connected to form three new triangles that are then removed to form nine smaller internal triangles. The process of cutting away triangular pieces continues indefinitely, producing a region with a Hausdorf dimension of a bit more than 1.5 (indicating that it is more than a one-dimensional figure but less than a two-dimensional figure).$