What is this fractal thing?
It's mathematics, it's geometric shapes, it's a process in time, it's all these things and more. It defies strict definition. It's embedded in chaos theory. It occurs in nature, technology, art, architecture and more.
Fractals have the distinctive feature of a repeating geometry, shape or form with structure which self-similarly replicates at a smaller scale, to infinity and infinitesimally. They are found everywhere in nature, from Romanesco broccoli to ferns, the branches of a snow flake, the coil of a snail shell or the pattern of a hard frost on glass and even at larger scales such as salt flats, mountains, coastlines and clouds. The shapes of trees and mountains are self-similar, such that a branch looks like a small tree and a rocky outcrop like a small mountain.
