Fractals and electronics

FRACTALS ADD a new dimension to electronics. People most often see fractals in the familiar, irregular branching shapes of nature — leaf, or tree, or snowflake. Fractal, in mathematics, is a geometric shape that is complex and detailed in structure at any level of magnification. Often fractals are self-similar — that is, they have the property that each small portion of the fractal can be viewed as a reduced-scale replica of the whole. A repeating pattern of ever-smaller branches gives these structures a unique profile that defies classical geometry. Now a study suggests that magnetic fields can take the form of fractals too if a magnet is made of plastic molecules that are stacked in parallel chains.Mathematically, fractals are considered to exist in partial, or fractional, dimensions. That means if a device produces a magnetic field that exhibits fractal behaviour, the magnetic field would not posses dimension equal to a whole number — such as one, two, or three dimensions — but rather a fractional value such as 0.8 or 1.6 dimensions.