A Beautiful Math (Click link to see images)
By John Tierney

The rough edges of the black shape in this famous fractal, named the Mandelbrot set, are derived from the equations described in Nova's program this evening on fractal geometry, "Hunting the Hidden Dimension." (Art Matrix)

It's hard enough to make modern mathematics comprehensible in print, so I'm especially impressed to see anyone try to do it on television. Tonight, at 8 p.m. on PBS, Nova is presenting "Hunting the Hidden Dimension," an hour-long documentary on what it calls a "compelling mathematical detective story," the discovery of fractal geometry and its resulting applications. Of course, it doesn't hurt that there are lots of beautiful examples of fractals the natural world — and the unnatural worlds of "Star Trek" and "Star Wars."

[UPDATE, Wednesday, Oct. 29] If you missed the show last night, you can watch it by clicking here. You'll see a beautiful explanation of how patterns of static in phone lines led to the Mandelbrot set pictured above — and much more. I agree with Xanthippe's critical verdict on the show: "Brilliant."

The documentary, produced and directed by Michael Schwarz and Bill Jersey, tells how the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot became obssessed with "roughness" because so much in nature was not explained by orderly classical shapes like cones and spheres. He developed equations to explain shapes ranging from clouds to broccoli, and the equations turned out to be useful in creating movies, building cell-phone antennas, developing stronger concrete and a myriad of other applications