USIC FADES IN 10.00.07
00.00.07 00.00.07 ZOOM IN ON M-SET
00.00.09
CAPTION ON SCREEN ON M-SET B/G
The universe is written in the language of mathematics...............without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it: without this language we wander about in a dark labyrinth.
Galileo Galilei
10.00.19 CAPTION FADES OUT
10.00.21 Pan over hillside
PRESENTER VOICE OVER
The world that we live in is not naturally smooth-edged 10.00.24 Low angle sand patterns
and regularly shaped like the familiar cones, circles, 10.00.27 CS sand patterns
PRESENTER IN VISION 10.00.28
spheres and straight lines of Euclid’s Geometry. 10.00.28 Presenter in vision
The real world is wrinkled, crinkled, and irregularly 10.00.30 Name caption fades on
shaped. It’s a wiggly world!
10.00.35 Name caption fades off
Amazingly up until very recently we didn’t have a
geometry to describe the natural world. But we do now.
It’s called fractal geometry. Fractal geometry was
discovered in the 70s and 80s by Benoît Mandelbrot .
MANDELBROT 10.01.02
Yesterday was my birthday. I’m 75 years old. A long 10.01.02 Benoit Mandelbrot MS
MUSIC FADES OUT 10.01.03
life. A complicated life. One that followed very much
the pattern of my work.
My work has consisted of one major, good idea. 10.01.12 Mandelbrot CS
MUSIC FADES IN 10.01.14
The Fractal Geometry of Nature. 10.01.16 Mandelbrot’s book in CS
GIAEVER 10.01.09
I like the way he started his book and he says here: 10.01.19 IVAR GIAEVER MS
“Why is geometry often described as cold and dry? 10.01.21 Name Caption fades on
One reason lies in it’s inability to describe the shape 10.01.26 Name caption fades off
of a cloud, 10.01.30 Clouds LS
a mountain, 10.01.32 Mountains
a coastline 10.01.33 Coastline
or a tree. And so, what Mandelbrot has done, 10.01.34 Tree
he has made some sort 10.01.37 Giaever
of new geometry which made us able to describe
the nature as we see it around us. He has made
people think in a different way.
10.01.47 Aerial shot clouds
CLOUDS ARE NOT SPHERES CAPTION MAIN TITLE 10.01.48
THE LIFE AND WORK OF A MAVERICK MATHEMATICIAN ADD SUB-TITLE 10.01.50
TITLES fade out
GIAEVER VOICE OVER 10.01.54
Clouds are not spheres,
mountains are not cones,
coastlines are not circles 10.01.57 Mix to coastline
and bark is not smooth, 10.02.00 Mix to tilt up tree
nor does lightning travel in a straight line.
THUNDER EFFECTS 10.02.04 10.02.04 Lightning flashes
GIAEVER IN VISION 10.02.06
When I looked at the book 10.02.06 Giaever
that was the pictures that caught my imagination 10.02.07 CS page of book
that you actually could describe 10.02.09 CS page of book
nature with mathematics in such a good way. 10.02.12 Pan over book
PRESENTER VOICE OVER 10.02.15
One of the primary goals of science is to find a 10.02.15 Tilt up over sand
language that describes and explains the way the 10.02.18 Planetary graphic
universe works. Fractal geometry is a new language,
that has completely revolutionised the way scientists look at
and explore our world. 10.02.29 Water dripping though leaves
Fractal geometry describes the apparently 10.02.33 Tree against sea b/g
random forms that exist in nature like rivers 10.02.35 River
coastlines, 10.02.39 Coastline
trees, 10.02.40 Trees
the human body. 10.02.41 Silhouettes on hilltop
MUSIC FADES OUT 10.02.42
MANDELBROT 10.02.43
I’ve been concerned with real phenomena. Phenomena 10.02.43 Mandelbrot MS
that Nature surrounds us with,
but also with phenomena that man has in a certain 10.02.51 Mandelbrot CS
sense contrived, not quite designed -
like variation of financial prices, like the language of mankind. 10.03.00 Mandelbrot MS
Like the construction of big computers, in which the whole 10.03.06 Mandelbrot CS
design is not quite predictable - does not quite follow from
simple rules.
The geometry, which I learned in school - the 10.03.16 Mandelbrot MS
geometry with which our whole civilisation is
completely filled/permeated, is that of Euclid.
MUSIC FADES IN 10.03.25
It is a geometry of spheres, of triangles, of cones, 10.03.27 Mandelbrot CS
of circles, of straight lines.
But clouds are not spheres 10.03.35 Clouds
The shapes of nature 10.03.37 Mountain stream
around us are very, very complicated. 10.03.40 Pan over ferns
They are overwhelmingly complicated 10.03.43 Mule crossing bridge
and they defy description by the tools of Euclid.
To do science, you must describe nature. 10.03.49 Tree with big roots
Description is a language. 10.03.53 Yellow flowers
Language can be just words. 10.03.54 Red flowers
It can be formulas. 10.03.56 Written formula
It can be shapes. 10.03.56 Bare tree
Many things. 10.03.59 Mountain stream
Fractal geometry has provided a language. 10.04.01 Dew on grass
10.04.03 Pan to sun in jungle
10.04.06 Mountains
10.04.07 Grasses
10.04.09 Desert dunes
MANDELBROT 10.04.13
I was born in Warsaw in 1924 10.04.13 Mandelbrot MS
My mother was born in Lithuania 10.04.16 Still shot Mother
and my father’s family was also from Lithuania. 10.04.18 Still shot Father
MUSIC FADES OUT 10.04.18
They met in Warsaw, married and had 10.04.21 Still shot family group
one child before me had me 10.04.24 Still shot Mandelbrot
and a younger brother. 10.04.26 Still shot Mandelbrot and brother
On my father’s side they were all scholars. 10.04.29 Mandelbrot MS
An uncle, the younger brother 10.04.30 Still shot Uncle Szolem
of my father, became a very well known mathematician
in Paris.
He became professor at the College de France when I 10.04.36 Mandelbrot MS
was thirteen. So I knew that mathematics was an option 10.04.39 Still shot Mandelbrot
as a career all the time.
My uncle had been a very, very important person in my life. 10.04.44 Mandelbrot CS
I had another uncle, who was my tutor. That man did 10.04.47 Mandelbrot MS
not know how to be a tutor. He was quite amateur.
So what he did was to teach me important things like 10.04.57 Mandelbrot CS
playing chess. Telling me stories from antiquity.
Small things like alphabet, table multiplication, he told 10.05.04 Mandelbrot MS
me to just go ahead and learn them. I never did.
MUSIC FADES IN 10.05.10
PRESENTER VOICE OVER 10.05.12
Benoît showed an early love for geometry and he excelled 10.05.12 Chess animation
at chess though he admits that he did not think the
game through logically, but geometrically.
Maps were another important inspiration. 10.05.22 Map 1
Benoît’s father, Charles was crazy about them and 10.05.25 Map 2
their house was always full of them. 10.05.28 Map 3
Benoît read avidly and widely. 10.05.30 Mandelbrot’s eyes CS
MUSIC FADES OUT 10.05.33
MANDELBROT 10.05.34
I didn’t go to the first two years of elementary school, 10.05.34 Mandelbrot MS
then coasted later on. Came to Paris and started two
years late, because of the change of the school system.
I was not really present in class. I was dreaming and 10.05.48 Still shot young Mandelbrot
so on without any particular difficulty.
Then the war came and I moved to a little town in central 10.05.55 Mandelbrot MS
France called Tulle.
I made very many friends in Tulle. In particular 10.06.00 Mandelbrot CS
one who is still a great friend, who is Pierre Roubinet.
ROUBINET 10.06.05
10.06.05 PIERRE ROUBINET MS
10.06.08 Name Caption fades on
VOICE OVER TRANSLATION 10.06.10
Benoît has always been an outstanding student. He did
brilliantly well at the Lycee in Tulle.
10.06.13 Name caption fades off
He always achieved the highest distinctions in Mathematics.
But Benoît has never been completely integrated, at least not
in his youth. And certainly, later on in life, he never fitted
into the academic institutions.
MANDELBROT 10.06.32
Then things became very bad. 10.06.32 Mandelbrot MS
MUSIC FADES IN 10.06.33
10.06.34 German troops marching
GUNFIRE EFFECTS 10.06.35
10.06.36 Man crying
10.06.37 Man crying
The Germans occupied Southern France, 10.06.39 Mandelbrot MS
which they had not in 1940. 10.06.41 Train approaching
And I spent a year and a half 10.06.43 Hitler at train window
running around, keeping body and soul together. 10.06.46 Mandelbrot MS
MUSIC FADES OUT 10.06.47
In fact, at one point, I was 10.06.49 Mandelbrot CS
an apprentice tool maker, which I did surprisingly well
because I had very firm hand 10.06.58 Mandelbrot MS
and I had a very good feeling for the shape of things.
MUSIC FADES IN 10.07.00
PEITGEN 10.07.02
When he talks about these days and years it sounds 10.07.02 HEINZ-OTTO PEITGEN MS
&a