Rob Oplawar
June 4th, 2007, 11:11 PM
Yes, this is older than I am, but I've been really into fractals lately and I just thought that any of you who have not yet experienced this particular fractal are really missing out.
ATWrMlIKRBk
And yes fractals are very techy and no this does not belong in the youtube thread, because the Mandelbrot Fractal deserves the whole friggin internet to itself, so one thread is the least we can offer it.
So for those of you like me who are interested in just how exactly this sort of image is formed, here's where the Mandelbrot fractal comes from:
It is an iterative equation (I can't remember the equation itself, but it's just a quick websearch away for those who are really interested) which means you pick a value as an input, and the output of the equation becomes the input, and that output becomes the input, and the equation just iterates like that into infinity (or as much as your computer's memory will allow.) In the case of the Mandelbrot fractal, the input is a pixel on the screen, and in each iteration, the pixel moves, either decreasing to a limit value (location on the screen), or exploding off to infinity. If it moves towards a limit, the pixel is drawn as black. If it moves away, the color of the pixel depends on the relative speed at which it zips off to infinity- the convention of which color goes with what is arbitrary, and can be changed (which is what you're seeing when you seen a stationary fractal that is flashing in millions of changing colors). In this video, though, we're just zooming in on a portion of the fractal, which is literally infinitely complex. If you look at the title, you'll see that the camera zooms in until the first frame would be the size of the known universe. The animation got cut off just a few seconds short- just as it ends you can make out the outline of the original shape- the fractal contains infinite copies of itself with just minor alterations as you goo "deeper" into it.
It's things like this fractal that make me think that if there is a God of some sort out there, he/she/it is just unbelievably awesome, in the literal sense. But as I'm unfortunately an atheist (well, at the moment, anyway), I just have to figure that the universe is just really really cool on its own. Seriously, it just literally inconceivably complex and simple at the same time. It's just... wow. Okay, at this point I wish I were an english major just so I could properly express the awe I'm feeling.
Oh shi I'm still in long post mode. Why doesn't somebody help me?!?!
Edit: my bad it's called the "Mandelbrot Set"
ATWrMlIKRBk
And yes fractals are very techy and no this does not belong in the youtube thread, because the Mandelbrot Fractal deserves the whole friggin internet to itself, so one thread is the least we can offer it.
So for those of you like me who are interested in just how exactly this sort of image is formed, here's where the Mandelbrot fractal comes from:
It is an iterative equation (I can't remember the equation itself, but it's just a quick websearch away for those who are really interested) which means you pick a value as an input, and the output of the equation becomes the input, and that output becomes the input, and the equation just iterates like that into infinity (or as much as your computer's memory will allow.) In the case of the Mandelbrot fractal, the input is a pixel on the screen, and in each iteration, the pixel moves, either decreasing to a limit value (location on the screen), or exploding off to infinity. If it moves towards a limit, the pixel is drawn as black. If it moves away, the color of the pixel depends on the relative speed at which it zips off to infinity- the convention of which color goes with what is arbitrary, and can be changed (which is what you're seeing when you seen a stationary fractal that is flashing in millions of changing colors). In this video, though, we're just zooming in on a portion of the fractal, which is literally infinitely complex. If you look at the title, you'll see that the camera zooms in until the first frame would be the size of the known universe. The animation got cut off just a few seconds short- just as it ends you can make out the outline of the original shape- the fractal contains infinite copies of itself with just minor alterations as you goo "deeper" into it.
It's things like this fractal that make me think that if there is a God of some sort out there, he/she/it is just unbelievably awesome, in the literal sense. But as I'm unfortunately an atheist (well, at the moment, anyway), I just have to figure that the universe is just really really cool on its own. Seriously, it just literally inconceivably complex and simple at the same time. It's just... wow. Okay, at this point I wish I were an english major just so I could properly express the awe I'm feeling.
Oh shi I'm still in long post mode. Why doesn't somebody help me?!?!
Edit: my bad it's called the "Mandelbrot Set"