An important part of mathematics is the construction of good definitions. Some things, like planar graphs, are trivial to define, and other concepts, like compact sets, arise from putting a name on often used requirements (although the notion of compactness has changed over time to be more general). In other cases, such as in set theory, the natural definitions may yield undesired and even contradictory results, and it can be necessary to use a more complicated formalization.    The notion of a curve falls in the latter category. While it is intuitively clear what a curve is – line segments, empty geometric shapes, and squiggles like this: – it is not immediately clear how to make a general definition of curves. Their most obvious characteristic is that they have no width, so one idea may be to view curves as what can be drawn with a thin pen. This definition, however, has the weakness that even such a line has the ability to completely fill a square, making it a bad definition of curves. Today curves are generally defined by the condition of having no width, that is, being one-dimensional, together with the conditions of being compact and connected, to avoid strange cases.    In this thesis we investigate this definition and a few examples of curves.

Fractals is a relatively new mathematical topic which received thorough treatment only starting with 1960's. Fractals can be observed everywhere in nature and in day-to-day life. To give a few examples, common fractals are the spiral cactus, the romanesco broccoli, human brain and the outline of the Swedish map. Fractal dimension is a dimension which need not take integer values. In fractal geometry, a fractal dimension is a ratio providing an index of the complexity of fractal pattern with regard to how the local geometry changes with the scale at which it is measured. In recent years, fractal analysis is used increasingly in many areas of engineering and technology. Among others, fractal analysis is used in signal and image compression, computer and video design, neuroscience and fractal based cancer modelling and diagnosing.   This study consists of two main parts. The first part of the study aims to understand the appearance of an irregular Cantor set generated by the chaotic dynamical system generated by the logistic function on the unit interval [0,1]. In order to understand this irregular Cantor set, we studied the topological properties of the Cantor Middle-thirds set and the generalised Cantor sets, all of which have zero length. The necessity to compare these sets with regard to their size led us to the second part of this paper, namely the dimension studies of fractals. More complex fractals were presented in the second part, three definitions of dimension were introduced. The fractal dimension of the irregular Cantor set generated by the logistic mapping was estimated and we found that the Hausdorff dimension has the widest scope and greatest flexibility in the fractal studies. / Fraktaler är ett relativt nytt ämne inom matematik som fick sitt stora genomslag först efter 60-talet.  En fraktal är ett självliknande mönster med struktur i alla skalor. Några vardagliga exempel på fraktaler är spiralkaktus, romanescobroccoli, mänskliga hjärnan, blodkärlen och Sveriges fastlandskust. Bråktalsdimension är en typ av dimension där dimensionsindexet tillåts att anta alla icke-negativa reella tal. Inom fraktalgeometri kan dimensionsindexet betraktas som ett komplexitetsindex av mönstret med avseende på hur den lokala geometrin förändras beroende på vilken skala mönstret betraktas i. Under det senaste decenniet har fraktalanalysen använts alltmer flitigt inom tekniska och vetenskapliga tillämpningar. Bland annat har fraktalanalysen använts i signal- och bildkompression, dator- och videoformgivning, neurovetenskap och fraktalbaserad cancerdiagnos.   Denna studie består av två huvuddelar. Den första delen fokuserar på att förstår hur en fraktal kan uppstå i ett kaotiskt dynamiskt system. För att vara mer specifik studerades den logistiska funktionen och hur denna ickelinjära avbildning genererar en oregelbunden Cantormängd på intervalet [0,1]. Vidare, för att förstå den oregelbundna Cantormängden studerades Cantormängden (eng. the Cantor Middle-Thirds set) och de generaliserade Cantormängderna, vilka alla har noll längd. För att kunna jämföra de olika Cantormängderna med avseende på storlek, leds denna studie vidare till dimensionsanalys av fraktaler som är huvudämnet i den andra delen av denna studie. Olika topologiska fraktaler presenterades, tre olika definitioner av dimension introducerades, bland annat lådräkningsdimensionen och Hausdorffdimensionen. Slutligen approximerades dimensionen av den oregelbundna Cantormängden med hjälp av Hausdorffdimensionen. Denna studie demonstrerar att Hausdorffdimensionen har större omfattning och mer flexibilitet för fraktalstudier.