Waclaw
Sierpinski
(1882
- 1969 )
World
War I totally disrupted the
mathematical communities of
eastern Europe. Rather than
try to re-build comprehensive
university programs in several
areas of research, Sierpinski,
Kuratowski, Banach and others
decided to work together in the
emerging field of abstract
spaces. They soon became
known as the "Polish
School." Their first
international recognition came
from publishing a new journal, Fundamenta
Mathematicae (1920), devoted
to set theory and related topics,
and not to their work in
topology. Indeed, the
publication of Banach's
dissertation in 1922 has been
called the birth of functional
analysis.
Still,
an interest in abstract spaces
flourished. As early as
1915, Sierpinski described a
"gasket" or a "triangle" with
repeated and proportionally
reduced areas. Today these
shapes are widely known as
"fractals." Sierpinski's
triangles would later emerge to be
among the most recognizable shapes
or patterns in all computer
graphics.
As
Botticelli gave birth to Venus
by using foam of the sea,
the recursive power of the
computer would lift Sierpinski's
triangles to a heightened level of
prominence.
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