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What are fractals ?
Fractals were the name given by Beniot Mandelbrot in 1975 to describe shapes that are "self-similar" and recreate themselves when viewed at different magnifications. He was progressing an idea first discovered by Gaston Julia in 1918 To create a fractal, you begin with a simple shape ,triangle, oval square etc.and duplicate it repeatedly adhearing to a set of fixed rules. Benoit found that this simple formula for creating shapes can produce very complex and infinite structures, with many bearing an uncanny resemblance to objects that appear in the real world. For example, Clouds, Mountains ,Trees and cosmos itself all seem to follow the rule of fractals by multi-replicating a simple shape to give them there form. |
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Map makers became aware of the strange behaviour of fractals when measuring the length of coastlines. They discovered that as the images they used improved over the years they were having to add extra miles to their calculations as bays & inlets became visible & still more moles as small rivers & rock formations were disclosed. To take this idea as step further & include microscopic detail, the coastlines length would become ever longer as we zoomed into infinity This zooming into infinity can be demonstrated with the animation below
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Download Free Fractal software Movies
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