A Tutorial Review on Fractal Spacetime and Fractional Calculus

This tutorial review of fractal-Cantorian spacetime and fractional calculus begins with Leibniz's notation for derivative without limits which can be generalized to discontinuous media like fractal derivative and q-derivative of quantum calculus. Fractal spacetime is used to elucidate some basic properties of fractal which is the foundation of fractional calculus, and El Naschie's mass-energy equation for the dark energy. The variational iteration method is used to introduce the definition of fractional derivatives. Fractal derivative is explained geometrically and q-derivative is motivated by quantum mechanics. Some effective analytical approaches to fractional differential equations, e. g., the variational iteration method, the homotopy perturbation method, the exp-function method, the fractional complex transform, and Yang-Laplace transform, are outlined and the main solution processes are given.