In article <3ebf872c@news.povray.org>, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> 
wrote:

>   No, the word "fractal" does not imply self-similarity. The origin of
> the word is related to mathematical calculations of the dimensions of
> a fractal shape, which is fractional in a mathematical sense.

Actually, it has nothing to do with that. The words "fractal" and 
"fraction" have a common root, but "fractal" is more closely related to 
"fractured" and "fragment". Mandelbrot coined the word "fractal" from 
the Latin "fractus", which means rough, irregular, or broken, and it 
does refer to the self-similarity aspect: if you were to break a fractal 
into pieces ("fracts"?), each fragment would appear similar to the 
others.

Here's a quote from Mandelbrot himself: "I coined fractal from the Latin 
adjective fractus. The corresponding Latin verb fragere means 'to 
break': to create irregular fragments...how appropriate for our needs!"

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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