Preface

This volume is based upon the presentations made at an international conference in London on the subject of 'Applications of Fractals and Chaos'.

Introduction

Beautiful and fascinating images generated by applying computer graphics to fractal methods rightly generate enormous interest in this recently 'rediscovered' area. The mathematical theory underlying these developments was a matter of
much dispute early in the twentieth century, but became accepted as part of the core of mathematical theory before the mid-century. Fractal effects of patterns with infinitesimal subdivisibility and self-similarity have been observed in many artificially generated sets. Recently, observers and researchers have become excited over similarities between the properties of such sets and those of naturally occurring phenomena, such as growing plants, clouds and coastlines.