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Many people are immediately drawn to the bizarrely beautiful images known as fractals. Extending beyond the typical perception of mathematics as a body of sterile formulas, fractal geometry mixes art with mathematics to demonstrate that equations are more than just a collection of numbers. With fractal geometry we can visually model much of what we witness in nature, the most recognized being coastlines and mountains. Fractals are used to model soil erosion and to analyze seismic patterns as well. But beyond potential applications for describing complex natural patterns, with their visual beauty fractals can help alter students' beliefs that mathematics is dry and inaccessible and may help to motivate mathematical discovery in the classroom.
-- From the NCSA Education Group at the University of Illinois - Urbana / Champaign
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