One Badass Fucking Song

As you may know, I've been a fan of the Mandelbrot Set (the catalog of Julian sets) ever since I first heard of it in Benoit Mandelbrot's "The Fractal Geometry of Nature" in 1989 or so.

As you also may know, I'm a fan of well-written songs about science, and have shared my favorites with anyone who'd listen. Examples of this are "Mammal" and "The Sun Is A Mass of Incandescent Gas" by They Might Be Giants, as well as my favorite, "The Galaxy Song" by Eric Idle, from "Monty Python and The Meaning of Life." That song has always amazed me, because it is accurate to at least two digits in all of its cosmological citations. The kids and I used to sing the Galaxy song all the time while I was taking them to school, and I'm proud that they both know the facts cited in that song, and hope that their world-view has been somewhat affected by that.

What only a few of my closest friends know is that lovingly-written anthems make me cry in joy as I begin to understand them. "Mammal" and "Galaxy" and few others have had that effect on me. Well, I've got a new one to add to that list, and it's a biggie.

The new song is "Mandelbrot Set" by the great songwriter Jonathan Coulton. (Thank you again Lindsay for bringing him to my attention.)

The song is amazing alone in its neo-psychedelic changes and sounds, but what makes it so totally cool is the lyrics, an accurate and caring description of the historical and mathematical aspects of the Mandelbrot Set. Coulton manages to accurately and correctly tell you how to calculate the set within the song's chorus while keeping the song compelling! Here are the lyrics, from http://www.jonathancoulton.com/lyrics/mandelbrot-set

Pathological monsters! cried the terrified mathematician
Every one of them is a splinter in my eye
I hate the Peano Space and the Koch Curve
I fear the Cantor Ternary Set
And the Sierpinski Gasket makes me want to cry
And a million miles away a butterfly flapped its wings
On a cold November day a man named Benoit Mandelbrot was born

His disdain for pure mathematics and his unique geometrical insights
Left him well equipped to face those demons down
He saw that infinite complexity could be described by simple rules
He used his giant brain to turn the game around
And he looked below the storm and saw a vision in his head
A bulbous pointy form
He picked his pencil up and he wrote his secret down

Take a point called Z in the complex plane
Let Z1 be Z squared plus C
And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C
And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C and so on
If the series of Z’s should always stay
Close to Z and never trend away
That point is in the Mandelbrot Set

Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
You’re one badass fucking fractal
And you’re just in time to save the day
Sweeping all our fears away
You can change the world in a tiny way

Mandelbrot’s in heaven, at least he will be when he’s dead
Right now he’s still alive and teaching math at Yale
He gave us order out of chaos, he gave us hope where there was none
And his geometry succeeds where others fail
If you ever lose your way, a butterfly will flap its wings
From a million miles away, a little miracle will come to take you home

Just take a point called Z in the complex plane
Let Z1 be Z squared plus C
And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C
And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C and so on
If the series of Z’s should always stay
Close to Z and never trend away
That point is in the Mandelbrot Set
Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
You’re one badass fucking fractal
And you’re just in time to save the day
Sweeping all our fears away
You can change the world in a tiny way
And you’re just in time to save the day
Sweeping all our fears away
You can change the world in a tiny way
Go on change the world in a tiny way
Come on change the world in a tiny way



You can listen to and download the song at

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/mp3/Mandelbrot Set.mp3. Click on "download the mp3".

I currently think that this is Coulton's best song, but this may change as I've only heard some of his songs once.

Give him a listen! Most of his songs are available for download at

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/