Clouds Are Not Spheres

Mountains are not cones. . . the beautiful mind of Benoit Mandelbrot Until recently geometry was 'cold' - incapable of describing the irregular shape of a cloud, the slope of a mountain or the beauty of the human body. With fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot gave us a language for our natural world. In this captivating documentary, the man himself explains this groundbreaking discovery. "The shapes of nature are overwhelmingly complicated and they defy description by the tools of Euclid" Benoit says, remembering the geometry he was taught as a boy. Always a distinguished student, Benoit found he had a rare gift at high school. "When the teacher gave me a problem I would see two shapes intersecting"- Benoit remembers - "the answer was immediate". By transforming equations into geometric problems, Benoit flew through exam after exam with no preparation. "I cheated" Benoit says grinning "I could see what was happening instead of having to search for it".