Fractals Take a Central Place
Author(s): Sandra Lach Arlinghaus
Source: Geografiska Annaler.
Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 67, No. 2, (1985), pp. 83-88
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Swedish Society for
Anthropology and
Geography
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/490419
Abstract
The geometry of central place theory is shown to be a
(small) proper subset of the geometry of fractal curves: curves of
fractional dimension which have only recently been displayed in a
graphically provocative manner as computer-generated images (Mandelbrot
1977; 1983). The exact procedure for making this correspondence between
a theory from economics and geography with one from pure mathematics is
displayed in the text. It lends itself to replication by hand or by
machine. As is usual with alignments of this sort, a wide variety of
related projects follows naturally; some of these are indicated at
appropriate points in the text.