11 Fascinating Fractals in Nature

Published on 12/30/2008 under Science - 125,814 views
TAGS: fractals, natural fractals

From clouds and snow flakes, to crystals and blood vessels, approximate fractals are easily found in nature. Coined by french mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975, a "fractal" is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole, a property called "self-similarity". In the case of natural fractals, they display self-similar structure over an extended -but finite- scale range.

Meet some of the most beautiful fractals we've found in nature.


Peacock fractal (by William Bragg)



Coastline fractal (by good day)



Coastline fractal in midwest USA (by good day)



Snow flake fractal (by Sam Javanrouh)






Sea shell fractal (by Sustainable San Mateo)



Sea urchin fractal (by jurvetson)



Fractal tree (by Samuel Judge)



Tree Leave fractal (by Benjamin Pender)



Queen Anne's Lace fractal (by C0N6R355)



Lightning fractal (by howstuffworks)



Broccoli fractal (by tin G)

Reader Contributions Al Qubbah Al Kabirah by MRawash on 10/6/2009 Al Qubbah Al Kabirah, Al Wadi Al Jadid, Egypt (actually the whole topography of that area is amazing(...) Have a great addition to the article? Contribute!

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