“A branch of physics that I was working in for many years has lately become much less active. Many problems have been solved and others are so difficult that nobody knows what to do about them. This means that I do much less physics today than 15 years ago. By contrast, fractal tools have plenty to do. There is a joke that your hammer will always find nails to hit. I find that perfectly acceptable. The hammer I crafted is the first effective tool for all kinds of roughness and nobody will deny that there is at last some roughness everywhere.”

—  Benoît Mandelbrot

A Theory of Roughness (2004)

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Benoît Mandelbrot photo
Benoît Mandelbrot 56
Polish-born, French and American mathematician 1924–2010

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