On Growth and Form: Fractal and Non-Fractal Patterns in Physics.

Boston, MA Kluwer Academic Pubishers Group: Martinus Nijhoff, 1986. Paperback First Ed thus, unstated. Very Good+ in Wraps: shows only minor indications of use; backstrip lightly sunned, but titles thereon remain bold and clearly legible; binding shows the slightest spine lean, but remains perfectly secure; text clean. Just a hint of wear to extremities; mild rubbing. Close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder. NOT a Book-Club Edition. NOT an Ex-Library copy. 8vo. 308pp. First Ed thus, unstated. Academic Press Paperback. Describes the remarkable upsurge of progress in understanding the structure of a variety of random "forms" and the fashion in which these forms "grow". Examples range from fractal viscous fingering to a dielectric breakdown. The striking similarity of these two structures suggests that there might be some unifying elementary principle underlying both. The remarkable discovery described here is both phenomena can be related to properties of simple random walk - indeed, even the quantitative equations from fluid mechanics and electromagnetism can be formally related to the equations describing the motion of a random walk. Based on the Proceedings from the NATO Advanced Studies Institute, this is the first book on these new approaches to grown and form.