Recursion

The answer to the question, "How do you make a Sierpinski Gasket?" is a procedure which is recursively defined.

Procedure for Making a Sierpinski Gasket

Making Sierpinski Gaskets involves making Sierpinski Gaskets. Each time you do the procedure, you do the procedure some more, but not in a repetitive way. (Otherwise we would be talking about repetition and not recursion!)

You don't make the second, third and fourth Sierpinski Gaskets after you make the first one. Making the next three is part of making the first one. All the ones you make after that will be part of those three which are part of the first one.

Whew!