The Mandelbrot set is one of the most famous of all fractals. It is named after the man who discovered it. Benoit Mandelbrot.
I wish he was my granddad!
He is one of the people who pioneered the exploration of fractals and other chaotic systems.The Mandelbrot set is a fractal. What this means is that the boundary between the Mandelbrot set and the surrounding area that isn’t the Mandelbrot set is not a simple line or a curve (one dimensional), but it also isn’t a filled-in circle or square (two dimensional). It is so convoluted, folded, and detailed, that it is considered to have fractional dimension.
When you double the magnification of a fractal, the length of the curve, and hence the area covered, does not merely double. All previously visible portions of the curve double in length, but new bumps, curves, and fjords in the boundary become visible and add to the length.
The Mandelbrot set has been proven to have a fractal dimension of two. That means that each time you double the magnification, the length of the boundary increases four times. It also means that the Mandelbrot set is as complicated as a fractal can get. The length of the boundary of the Mandelbrot set is infinite — it can be any length you want, if you measure it with a small enough measuring stick.
click on “fractal maths” for a slightly more technical explanation….
I lvoe fractals too, so glad you passed by me on blogcatalog. I wrote an article about them a while back, I’ll dig it out. It is about fractal memory!
leah
ps. here’s the link to that fractal memory article I wrote, let me know if it makes any sense!
http://searchwarp.com/swa237631.htm
I love the images and have a very talented fractal artist friend on myspace. I’ll send link if you’d like to see his work. It’s amazing.
Leah
hey leah,
Thanks for the link!! xx
I’m glad he’s not MY grandad becasue I might end up looking like him!!!
I’ve only found out about fractals recently and just love them