Fractal Analysis for Social Systems

Abstract

This is a brief introduction to fractals, multifractals and wavelets in an accessible way, in order that the founding ideas of those strange and intriguing newcomers to science as fractals may be communicated to a wider public. Fractals are the geometry of the wildness of nature, where the euclidian geometry fails. The structures of nonlinear dynamics associated with chaos are fractal. Fractals may also be used as the geometry of social systems. Wavelets are introduced as a tool for fractal analysis. As an example of its application on a social system, we use wavelet fractal analysis to compare electrical power demand of two different places, a touristic city and a whole country.