Timeline for Experimental mathematics leading to major advances
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 1, 2023 at 0:16 | comment | added | Jeppe Stig Nielsen | @RolandBacher Address is changed to https://abel.math.harvard.edu/archive/118r_spring_05/docs/brooksmatelski.pdf. If this link also rots, try https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400881550-007 although it may require subscription. | |
| Aug 4, 2022 at 13:22 | comment | added | Roland Bacher | @MarkoAmnell The link to the historically first paper depicting the Mandelbrot set does not seem to work any more. | |
| Dec 11, 2015 at 12:13 | comment | added | Gareth McCaughan | It's maybe worth making it explicit that the Brooks whom Mandelbrot quotes disapprovingly is the same Brooks who actually did discover the "Mandelbrot set" before Mandelbrot did, which makes his characterization of Brooks as "someone who did not discover that set" particularly obnoxious. | |
| Sep 24, 2015 at 12:10 | comment | added | Lasse Rempe | The article at scientificamerican.com/article/mandelbrot-set-1990-horgan discusses a lot of this history, by the way. | |
| Sep 24, 2015 at 12:00 | comment | added | Lasse Rempe | @RichardBorcherds I have always loved the ASCII pictures in the Brooks-Matelski paper; they are rather amazing. | |
| Sep 24, 2015 at 11:51 | comment | added | Lasse Rempe | Another interesting point is that Mandelbrot thought originally that the Mandelbrot set was disconnected, and his computer pictures showed isolated "islands". The editor of the journal apparently thought these were specs of dust, and carefully removed them all ... in the copy of the paper that Mandelbrot sent to Hubbard, apparently Mandelbrot drew them back in by pencil. :) | |
| Sep 24, 2015 at 11:48 | comment | added | Lasse Rempe | @VictorProtsak Your anecdote is still somewhat correct - As I understand, Hubbard drew pictures of parameter spaces (I think) for Newton's method of cubic polynomials, and Mandelbrot told him at the time that this inspired him to make his pictures of what is now called the Mandelbrot set. | |
| Mar 16, 2011 at 19:17 | history | edited | Marko Amnell | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
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| Oct 14, 2010 at 19:11 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki | ||
| Aug 15, 2010 at 18:10 | comment | added | Marko Amnell | Thanks for the correction. The paper by Brooks and Matelski is available online. The picture of the Mandelbrot set is on the second last page. math.harvard.edu/archive/118r_spring_05/docs/brooksmatelski.pdf | |
| Aug 15, 2010 at 14:12 | comment | added | Richard Borcherds | The Mandelbrot set was first discovered in 1978 by Robert Brooks and Peter Matelski (The dynamics of 2-generator subgroups of PSL(2,C), in "Riemann Surfaces and Related Topics", ed. Kra and Maskit, Ann. Math. Stud. 97, 65–71, ISBN 0-691-08264-2) They drew a crude but recognizable picture of it in their paper. So the statement that it could not have been discovered in the mathematical culture of the 1970s is simply false: it WAS discovered in the mathematical culture of the 1970s! | |
| Aug 15, 2010 at 11:41 | history | edited | Marko Amnell | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
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| Jun 6, 2010 at 19:29 | comment | added | Victor Protsak | My understanding is that John Hubbard discovered the set and described it to Mandelbrot, who had access to much better computers. | |
| Feb 9, 2010 at 23:55 | history | answered | Marko Amnell | CC BY-SA 2.5 |