mcnees, 4 months ago

Swedish mathematician Niels Fabian Helge von Koch was born #OTD in 1870.

He established results in number theory, including one that relates the Riemann hypothesis to the asymptotic distribution of prime numbers. But he is probably best known for what we call the "Koch Curve" – one of the first examples of a fractal.

The animated gif has a white background. It begins with a horizontal light blue line. Then a light blue equilateral triangle appears above the middle third. In the next step. Each of the four remaining segments sprouts its own equilateral triangle, and so on until the result is a complicated curve that resembles part of a snowflake.