Extending fractals into the plane of complex numbers followed in 1979.

ECONOMIST: Beno?t Mandelbrot

It's the first model to feature an interface powered by the PS2's Graphics Synthesizer and Emotion Engine chips, too, and comes with a clamshell, joystick-equipped remote control that looks like you could use it to pilot a plane and solve complex equations while you watch.

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Substantially more complex than previous aircraft, the new plane required the pilot to attend to the four engines, a retractable landing gear, new wing flaps, electric trim tabs that needed adjustment to maintain control at different airspeeds, and constant-speed propellers whose pitch had to be regulated with hydraulic controls, among other features.

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"There could be a million distractions around him -- he could be on a bad phone connection, in an airport, running for a plane, and he'd immediately grasp a complex story as five of us shouted it into a speaker phone, and he'd have the fix, " she said.

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This has to do with a plane's dive speed and ability to refuel in complex situations and at high speeds.

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His intelligence operates on a higher plane, but his true gift is the ability to distill his complex theories into easily digestible terms.

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Enter the cockpit of a fighter plane and you will be amazed by the myriad arrays of display panels and complex control systems.

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Complex numbers, which have a real and an imaginary part added together, are the points on this plane that do not lie on either axis.

ECONOMIST: Beno?t Mandelbrot