Doubling the edge lengths of a filled polygon multiplies its area by four, which is two (the ratio of the new to the old side length) raised to the power of two (the conventional dimension of the filled polygon).

One way that fractals are different from finite geometric figures is how they scale. Fractal geometry lies within the mathematical branch of measure theory. This exhibition of similar patterns at increasingly smaller scales is called self-similarity, also known as expanding symmetry or unfolding symmetry if this replication is exactly the same at every scale, as in the Menger sponge, the shape is called affine self-similar. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illustrated in successive magnifications of the Mandelbrot set. In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension.

Zooming into the boundary of the Mandelbrot set Mandelbrot set at the cardioid left boundary The Mandelbrot set: its boundary is a fractal curve with Hausdorff dimension 2 Mandelbrot set with 12 encirclements For other uses, see Fractal (disambiguation).

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