I never really understood, please bring examples as well.
In: 1
Fractals are shapes that are “rough,” which means they look detailed no matter how far you zoom in, and they are all around us! Plants, rocks, mountains, coastlines, snowflakes, etc.
For the longest time, we’ve only done geometry with very simple, ideal shapes like squares, triangles, and circles because those are easy to understand and model. However, the real world is always rough, and some things like trees are just too detailed to be represented well by just those simple shapes.
Fractal geometry is a relatively recent invention (a few decades old) and is great because it finally gives us the tools to model and do math with shapes that are rough, which has allowed us to do cool things like make nature and terrain in video games look more realistic.
They are also quite pretty in and of themselves, probably because of their similarity to nature. We have been painting them since long before we understood them in a mathematical sense. Just look up “The Great Wave”
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