Fractals for the Classroom: Strategic Activities Volume Two

by Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Hartmut Jürgens, Dietmar Saupe

The same factors that motivated the writing of our first volume of strategic activities on fractals continued to encourage the assembly of additional activities for this second volume. Fractals provide a setting wherein students can enjoy hands-on experiences that involve important mathematical content connected to a wide range of physical and social phenomena. The striking graphic images, unexpected geometric properties, and fascinating numerical processes offer unparalleled opportunity for enthusiastic student inquiry. Students sense the vigor present in the growing and highly integrative discipline of fractal geom­ etry as they are introduced to mathematical developments that have occurred during the last half of the twentieth century. Few branches of mathematics and computer science offer such a contem­ porary portrayal of the wonderment available in careful analysis, in the amazing dialogue between numeric and geometric processes, and in the energetic interaction between mathematics and other disciplines. Fractals continue to supply an uncommon setting for animated teaching and learn­ ing activities that focus upon fundamental mathematical concepts, connections, problem-solving techniques, and many other major topics of elementary and advanced mathematics. It remains our hope that, through this second volume of strategic activities, readers will find their enjoyment of mathematics heightened and their appreciation for the dynamics of the world in­ creased. We want experiences with fractals to enliven curiosity and to stretch the imagination.

199 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Peitgen studied mathematics, physics and economics from 1965 until 1971 in Bonn, later working for six years at the Institute for Applied Mathematics at the University of Bonn under Christian Fenske, where he received his PhD in 1973. His doctoral dissertation was Asymptotische Fixpunktsätze und Stabilität (en: Asymptotic fixed-point theorems and stability).

After receiving his habilitation in 1977, he first taught as private docent in Bonn before obtaining a professorship for mathematics at the University of Bremen.

In 1986 Peitgen and Peter Richter published their lavishly illustrated and very influential book The Beauty of Fractals, which was amongst the first books popularizing the concept of fractals to the general public. This book was followed up in 1988 by The Science of Fractal Images and in 1992 by a large and authoritative volume entitled Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science, written in collaboration with Hartmut Jürgens and Dietmar Saupe.

Peitgen is director of the Centre for Complex Systems and Visualization (Centrum für Complexe Systeme und Visualisierung - CeVis) at the University of Bremen. His research work emphasises dynamical systems, numerical analysis, image analysis, and data analysis, as well as the use of computers in image-based medical diagnostics.