Self-Similar Dinner

Eventually, although a bit over-priced in the Hollywood farmer’s market, I do fall for these at least once in the season. As someone whose job and pastimes involve seeing patterns everywhere, how can I not love the romanesco? It’s a fractal! There are structures that repeat themselves on different scales again and again, which is the root of the term “self-similar”. Fractals are wonderful structures in mathematics (that have self-similarity) that I urge you to find out more about if you don’t already know (just google and follow your nose). And yes, this one happens to be edible. Here’s a wider shot, so you can see the bigger shapes reflect the smaller shapes in the first photo:

Once you learn what fractals are, you’ll start seeing them everywhere. The universe is a wonderful thing, full of realisations of some of the most lovely mathematics… sometimes right under our noses*.

-cvj

*Or, if you prefer, mathematics is a wonderful thing, full of encapsulations of lovely things that can be found out in the universe…