Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Beauty from the realm of abstract math: Fractals




From wikipedia:

A fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole". Because they appear similar at all levels of magnification, fractals are often considered to be infinitely complex (in informal terms). Natural objects that approximate fractals to a degree include clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, and snow flakes.

Fractals were big back in the 90’s. Everyone seemed to have a picture of a Mandelbrot set, which is one form of fractal. You must admit that these creations are really mind boggling.

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