Customer Reviews

Fractals Everywhere

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was written by a regarded expert in the fields of digital image processing and data compression, and illustrates well how some "abstract" mathematical concepts can be applied successfully to such purposes.

However, it is evident that it was written in a rush, and the results can be seen. I have found a lot of typographic mistakes, errors in the exercises, and even errors in some of its mathematical proofs. Also, the author pays almost no attention to the fundamental concept of fractal geometry: the fractal dimension.

I read this book because I needed a strong background in fractal geometry to write my Bachelor's thesis, but got dissapointed because of its mathematical defficiencies, and eventually decided to move to better sources on the subject.

Please check my other reviews in my member page (just click on my name above).

This is a good book on applications of fractals; the chapters on modeling natural objects with iterated function systems (IFS) and fractal interpolation are especially useful. Many standard topics are included, for example, fractal dimension, Julia and Mandelbrot sets, chaos and the shift dynamical system. Some of the illustrations are captivating.

However, the book is not well organized, and the writing is extremely wordy to the point of being irritating. Some paragraphs read as if they belonged to a "Dummies" handbook. Also, I have to agree with one reviewer that the treatment of fractal dimension is poor. For one thing, it does not fully develop the intuition behind the concept-- much less the math. This same remark holds for the chapter on chaotic dynamics.

In summary, the book is fine for applications, but supplement your reading with a more substantial text.

I really enjoyed the author's style. It is not a typical mathematical book. So if you are into strict formal mathematics this is not for you. The author has deep understanding of fractals and he is an expert in Iterated Function Systems (IFS). The shadow theorem is one of the biggest hits on this book.
What I particularly like from this book is the illustrations. They let you understand fractals intuitively. It is definitely an ideal book for engineers. Try also his other more advanced book SuperFractals
The only part of the book that is not very well developed is chaos, although the "chaotic dance" presented on the book is good starting point

This book is an eye popping experience for anyone wishing to explore the nature of fractal geometry. A must have reference for anyone seriously studying the subject. If you are trying to Model objects in the physical world using fractals this is the book to get you jump started.

Barnsley's book has a shortcoming common to many math text books -- it's poorly written. Barnsely's writing style is superfluous and rambling. What I learned from this book was in spite of Barnsley's writing, not because of it.

Furthermore, the book's illustrations are substandard. There are over five different fonts used in illustrations (including hand written text). This leads to confusion when you're unsure if the text in Barnsley's illustrations is referring to Greek letters or the conventional alphabet. Another shortcoming is that Barnsley intermingles end of chapter exercises with new concepts. You may have problems 1.1 to 1.5 reviewing what you've already learned, and then problem 1.6 introduces completely new material. This is a problem throughout the book, as important concepts are introduced in exercises or otherwise illogical locations.

On the positive side, solutions to most exercises are presented at the end of the book. Overall the book was useful, but learning the material was unnecessarily difficult due to the book's shortcomings.

Man, this got way too deep, way too fast. I have some algebra, some statistical analysis, some calc... This just took off running and left me in the dust. I was "fooled" by the "first course" title?

<clip> In fractal geometry we are concerned with the structure of subsets of various very simple "geometrical" spaces. Such a space is denoted by X. It is the space on which we think of drawing our fractals; it is the place where fractals live. What is a fractal? For us, for now, it is just a subset of a space. Whereas the space is simple, the fractal subset may be geometrically complicated.</clip>

So, why is *this* a fractal, but, *That*'s just a recursive function? Idunno, and I guess that I won't until I find another book?

This is a beautiful book. LOTs of graphics, TONs of information, but not for me.

This is a truly excellent textbook on the subject of fractals, complete with some runnable programs and comprehensive explanation of the principles of generating fractals. However, the proofs and examples are meaty, and it takes a long time to wade through the detail. But it is worth it.

Although instructive, this book is sometimes annoying to read. The author seems to be playing his cards very close to the vest and not telling us everything.

For instance, there is little or no instruction on how to implement the IFS attractors presented as a panacea for data compression. This seems to be proprietary to his company. It also seems that hands-on manipulation is crucial to the images' production, contrary to the author's claims.

If you can understand the mathematics you may find the book useful, as I did when writing my book Fractals in MUsic.

From the man who gave us fractal data compression this introduction to fractals gives the reader a look at a wide scale of fractals and introduces the basics of similarity and scaling. A must for the beginner's library. Your unique Associates ID is: thefractaltransl.

If anyone wants to know about fractals, I recommend him to read this book. It will give him a clear idea about the underlying concept of creating fractals.