Inspired by Mandelbrot's Fractals

.

I was reading a Jim Holt review of the book:

The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick

by Benoit B. Mandelbrot 

in the New York Review of Books (here), and decided to look for examples

of self-similarity in the kitchen. And yes, there was a (wilting) cauliflower

in the fridge, and parsley in the garden...

(Note to self: cook the cauliflower tonight!)

Jim Holt: "To see what self-similarity means, consider a homely example:

the cauliflower. Take a head of this vegetable and observe its form—the way

it is composed of florets. Pull off one of those florets. What does it look like?

It looks like a little head of cauliflower, with its own subflorets. Now pull off

one of those subflorets. What does that look like? A still tinier cauliflower.

If you continue this process—and you may soon need a magnifying glass—

you’ll find that the smaller and smaller pieces all resemble the head you

started with. The cauliflower is thus said to be self-similar. Each of its parts

echoes the whole."