Fractal geometry can be seen in everything from traditional African designs and braided hairstyles to many of the swirling patterns produced by computer graphics, said Ron Eglash, assistant professor of comparative studies at Ohio State.”While fractal geometry is often used in high-tech science, its patterns are surprisingly common in traditional African designs,” he said.Eglash has just published a book, “African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design” (Rutgers University Press, 1999) that explores how fractals have emerged as one of the most exciting frontiers in the fusion between mathematics and information technology.Fractals are geometric patterns that repeat, shrinking down to smaller and smaller scales to produce intricate designs outside the scope of classical geometry, he said. Benoit Mandelbrot, an IBM mathematician, coined the term in the late 1960s. Eglash’s book explores how fractals permeate all levels of African society, including art and architecture, religion and politics. In his book, Eglash discusses fractal patterns that appear in widespread components of indigenous African culture, from braided hairstyles and kente cloth to counting systems.One chapter of Eglash’s book describes an ivory hat pin from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that is decorated with face carvings. The faces are arranged in rows that shrink progressively toward the end of the pin and alternate direction. His research began in the 1980s while he was studying settlement architecture in West and Central Africa. Eglash noticed the striking fractal patterns in aerial photos of African settlements.”When we look at aerial photos of traditional African settlements, we see fractals – if they are rectangular we see rectangles, inside rectangles, inside rectangles,” Eglash said. Scaling patterns can also be seen in African textiles, paintings, carvings, jewelry and even in hairstyles, which is why the African-American “corn row” braids have a nonlinear pattern. The crisscross of the braid starts out large and quickly diminishes to a smaller size, Eglash said.”I think that Dr. Eglash’s book shows how fractals arise in architecture, hairstyles, art, etc. as a product of the specific procedures used to produce them,” said Robert Klein, a graduate student and fractals scholar. Often the procedures used to produce the designs are not done for the sake of creating fractals, but for social, cultural and religious reasons, Klein added.Fractal geometry may one day enable scientists to model complex processes in biology, chemistry and geography on computers. It may also help generate realistic computer images on natural features such as rugged terrain or tangled tree branches.”The work of Dr. Eglash and others in the ethnomathematics community has opened a lot of people’s eyes to the way mathematics is culturally situated,” Klein said. “There are wonderful implications for mathematics education in the United States, with its diverse student population.”