Fractal, from the Latin fractus means 'broken' or 'fractured'. A fractal, itself, is a fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-sized copy of the whole. Sound like a bunch of gibberish?
Let me try to explain. Think of the movie Airplane. The original one. You know, the one where the guy has a drinking problem. Now think of Lloyd Bridges. The guy who sniffed glue. In one scene of that movie, Bridges stood in front of a picture of him standing in front of a picture of him standing in front of a picture of him... You get the picture.
No, this isn't a fractal, though the picture of the picture of the picture is self-similar, which is important in fractals. What you might do to cause this to become a fractal is to take that picture behind Lloyd and deconstruct it so that you had all the pictures to infinity. Then start copying those pictures; again an infinite number. Then start pasting the second largest copies of those pictures to the sides of the largest picture, being the television in this case. Then paste the third largest copies of those pictures to the three free sides of the second largest pictures. And on and on and on... Until you get a fractal...
Not an easy concept, to be certain. But fascinating nonetheless...
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