full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals and the art of roughness
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Now, here is another thing which is rather ieeisntrntg. One of the shattering evtens in the horitsy of mathematics, which is not aitcrapeepd by many people, occurred about 130 years ago, 145 years ago. Mathematicians began to create shapes that didn't exist. Mathematicians got into self-praise to an extent which was absolutely amazing, that man can invent things that nrtaue did not know. In particular, it could invent things like a cuvre which fills the plane. A curve's a curve, a plane's a plane, and the two won't mix. Well, they do mix. A man named Peano did define such curves, and it became an oebjct of extraordinary interest. It was very important, but mostly interesting because a kind of break, a separation between the mathematics coming from reality, on the one hand, and new mathematics cnmiog from pure man's mind. Well, I was very sorry to point out that the pure man's mind has, in fact, seen at long last what had been seen for a long time. And so here I introduce something, the set of rrievs of a plane-filling curve. And well, it's a story unto itself. So it was in 1875 to 1925, an erntdaairxory period in which mathematics prepared itself to break out from the world. And the objects which were used as examples, when I was a child and a stnduet, as emaexlps of the break between mathematics and visible reality — those objects, I turned them coltplmeey around. I used them for describing some of the aspects of the complexity of nature.
Open Cloze
Now, here is another thing which is rather ___________. One of the shattering ______ in the _______ of mathematics, which is not ___________ by many people, occurred about 130 years ago, 145 years ago. Mathematicians began to create shapes that didn't exist. Mathematicians got into self-praise to an extent which was absolutely amazing, that man can invent things that ______ did not know. In particular, it could invent things like a _____ which fills the plane. A curve's a curve, a plane's a plane, and the two won't mix. Well, they do mix. A man named Peano did define such curves, and it became an ______ of extraordinary interest. It was very important, but mostly interesting because a kind of break, a separation between the mathematics coming from reality, on the one hand, and new mathematics ______ from pure man's mind. Well, I was very sorry to point out that the pure man's mind has, in fact, seen at long last what had been seen for a long time. And so here I introduce something, the set of ______ of a plane-filling curve. And well, it's a story unto itself. So it was in 1875 to 1925, an _____________ period in which mathematics prepared itself to break out from the world. And the objects which were used as examples, when I was a child and a _______, as ________ of the break between mathematics and visible reality — those objects, I turned them __________ around. I used them for describing some of the aspects of the complexity of nature.
Solution
- appreciated
- completely
- curve
- interesting
- nature
- student
- events
- extraordinary
- coming
- object
- rivers
- history
- examples
Original Text
Now, here is another thing which is rather interesting. One of the shattering events in the history of mathematics, which is not appreciated by many people, occurred about 130 years ago, 145 years ago. Mathematicians began to create shapes that didn't exist. Mathematicians got into self-praise to an extent which was absolutely amazing, that man can invent things that nature did not know. In particular, it could invent things like a curve which fills the plane. A curve's a curve, a plane's a plane, and the two won't mix. Well, they do mix. A man named Peano did define such curves, and it became an object of extraordinary interest. It was very important, but mostly interesting because a kind of break, a separation between the mathematics coming from reality, on the one hand, and new mathematics coming from pure man's mind. Well, I was very sorry to point out that the pure man's mind has, in fact, seen at long last what had been seen for a long time. And so here I introduce something, the set of rivers of a plane-filling curve. And well, it's a story unto itself. So it was in 1875 to 1925, an extraordinary period in which mathematics prepared itself to break out from the world. And the objects which were used as examples, when I was a child and a student, as examples of the break between mathematics and visible reality — those objects, I turned them completely around. I used them for describing some of the aspects of the complexity of nature.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
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Important Words
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