Synopses & Reviews
Fractals are an important topic in such varied branches of science as mathematics, computer science, and physics. Classics on Fractals collects for the first time the historic papers on fractal geometry, dealing with such topics as non-differentiable functions, self-similarity, and fractional dimension. Of particular value are the twelve papers that have never before been translated into English. Commentaries by Professor Edgar are included to aid the student of mathematics in reading the papers, and to place them in their historical perspective. The volume contains papers from the following: Cantor, Weierstrass, von Koch, Hausdorff, Caratheodory, Menger, Bouligand, Pontrjagin and Schnirelmann, Besicovitch, Ursell, Levy, Moran, Marstrand, Taylor, de Rahm, Kolmogorov and Tihomirov, Kiesswetter, and of course, Mandelbrot.
Synopsis
Contains a selection of the classical mathematical papers related to fractal geometry. Commentaries help the modern reader to understand the papers and their relation to modern work.
About the Author
Gerald A. Edgar received his B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has taught at Northwestern University, and is presently Professor of Mathematics at the Ohio State University. His research interests include measure theory and its application in fractal geometry, probability, and functional analysis.