Customer Reviews

The Colours of Infinity: The Beauty, The Power and the Sense of Fractals

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very good introduction to fractals, but I found the book light on mathematical details (for some this might be an advantage?!). Unfortunately the included DVD is not in NTSC format, so it will not play on many USA DVD players (I had to watch it on my PC :-(

The beauty and color of fractals is captured in a documentary also included on the DVD accompanying this unique and informative book. Introduced by Arthur C. Clarke, The Colours Of Infinity has received world-wide television coverage and ten years ago brought the subject of fractals to the general public for the first time: geometric exploration is brought to the general reader's attention here, in a fine and highly recommended survey of fractual creations and math.

This book is very informative about fractals but the DVD can only be watched on my computer. Nowhere did it say thet it could not be viewed on a TV. I wish it had said so.

The DVD is now correct for American DVD players. Beautiful book accompanied by beautiful documentary.

Fractals were just hitting the popular consciousness when I was in high school. I remember a flurry of pop science books that came out around that time, all of which presented the wonderful fractal images, while nevertheless dancing quite vaguely around the underlying ideas. The questions these mushheaded books immediately provoked in me (i.e. "what does 'self-similar' actually MEAN?" and "is complexity an objective quality or in the eye of the beholder?) were left totally unanswered. In my high school, these books (and the fractal posters, key-chains, videos, water-pipes...) commanded the attention of an intellectually philistine (and usually highly-intoxicated) crowd. People who use "party" as a verb. This "whoa dude-it's a fractal" factor was so powerful that it left the whole topic kind of disreputable in my book...until now.

This,too, is a "pop" science book, after a fashion, but unlike those other fractal books, the authors here refuse to dumb the subject down to a mere collection of pretty pictures. There is enough detail here to permit a diligent reader to truly understand the logic behind fractal geometry. If you can grasp the math, the basics are here. If, like me, you are a "liberal arts" type, the concepts are also explained in precise English.

The content of the video is similarly excellent. The interviews with Benoit Mandelbrot and Stephen Hawking are very cool indeed, but my favorite part is when Arthur C. Clarke states that, while he doesn't know about this PERSONALLY, "the ingestion of certain illegal substances produces fractal visions." Clad in his trademark blue utility shirt, and with a perfectly straight face, Clarke goes on to note the similarity between the words "Mandelbrot" and "Mandala." (Whoa, dude!)

Unfortunately, the video itself (i.e. formally, visually) is pretty dated. It seems to have been made for VHS, and has not been cleaned up for the DVD release at all. The colors are bled, and the titles look like they were made on a Commodore 64. The fractal images are quite low-resolution, which is unfortunate, since fractals are one topic for which high resolution would seem particularly essential. (Then again, NO level of resolution would really be sufficient.) This video is just begging to be remastered. With contemporary high-def video and computer technology it would be absolutely jaw-dropping. Still, this is totally worth it.

I had a concern about whether the DVD was NTSC compatible as I had read in the reviews that the CVD was in the PAL format and one review that the DVD was now in the NTSC foormat.

I called Amazon prior to ordering to confirm the NTSC format but, as expected, they had no clue. My order arrived and the DVD is in the correct format for playing in US DVD player.

However, when I first tried my DVD it would neither play in my computer or my DVD player. I was about to send my purchase back to Amazon when I noticed a mottled, opaque haze over the entire DVD playing surface but after cleaning the disk, the DVD played flawlessly. The DVD, I believe, became contaminated with a residue from the soft plastic sleeve that stores the DVD in the back cover of the book.

I had first seen the documentary on fractal geometry on public television and I was completely mesmerized. I wanted a DVD copy for myself and at the $22.02 price it was a "steal." I highly recommend it.

This combination book and DVD is excellent and comes at a very reasonable price. The illustrations in the book are beautiful and the DVD is a magnificent pictoral display of fractals as well as excellent descriptions of the history of fractals and the people who discovered them and developed them. Clarke narrates the DVD which I have watched several times and am never bored. The book compliments the DVD and visa versa. I can't imagine a more complete and picturesque presentation. I am a beginner in learning about fractals and this was a perfect purchase for me.

I have "accidentally" seen parts of the video during a local PBS fund drive. It intrigued me so much that I started looking on the internet for details. I found the right source, Amazon, and purchased the book and video.

It is a total experience and a revelation. I can only paraphrase some mathematician who said that God speaks to the mortals through mathematics. It is truly an epiphany.

What an illuminating, thought provoking book and dvd! I have watched it several times and each time it has opened my eyes more to the amazing possibilities in almost every aspect of our existance here on earth. And then who doesn't like David Gilmour's music ?

Depending upon one's education, it is possible to gain either an art appreciation of the fractal geometry of the Mandelbott Set or a realization of how all life is ordered and the universe structured. Life most certainly would exist somewhere out there and it would resemble what we have here on Earth. While viewing it, I felt that this was at least fifty percent of the riddle of the universe explained in at least its basis. The other fifty percent would be what Stephen Hawkin called the other formulae that will reverse this one. He hopes we will find this one before it begins to act in its turn. That would mark the collapse of the universe and he seems to think that we might prevent that. But the collapse may be inevitable and part of the eternal operation of two formulae.

The Mystery remains; was this ordered and if so, by whom or what? We may never know, but for this devastating mystery, we have David Gilmour's compelling score to propel us along through an eternal race toward infinity.

My only complaint is that the film needs re-mastering so that the fractal geometry can be expressed better. Ironic that the documentary that defines the detail of the universe is so fuzzy! Also, there is a second section of fractal art expression on the DVD that will only play on a computer. That ought to be fixed. I think it is fitting that Arthur C. Clarke is the narrator for this film, so I hope this original can be cleaned up and not trashed for an updated version with all new presentation and cast.

This documentary should be shown in all high-school science classes. In fact, I think it ought to be shown to everyone regardless of partticipation in science curriculum because it also assists the refinement of questions like evolution and religion.