The Wee Peeple Newsletter     

July 2009      Issue 29

 

 

The Dollmaker has always loved the spiral

as a motif in her own Crazy Quilting.

 

 

Spiral Obsession can be a lifelong preoccupation...

 

so...

It follows that...

When the Dollmaker first saw

Fractal Imagery

her spiral antennae extended all the way out... what was this?

 

wow!

 

Egad!   Double WOW!

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

************************************************************************************

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

The Dollmaker Explores

Fractals

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yes we are now about to tackle the question...

What the heck is a Fractal?

 

ok, this is the whole idea behind fractals....

observe what is happening here:

We take a simple straight line and add a triangular bump to it

If we keep doing this over and over,

adding a triangle to every straight line,

we get a most intricate design.

 

 

Check it out. We get a star shape...

And then, a bunch of smaller and smaller stars

which all resemble the larger star.

This may end up as ART, but it starts out as MATH!

 

Wikipedea states:

Geometry  is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of

 size, shape, relative position of figures, and properties of space.

Geometry is one of the oldest sciences.

It is a body of practical knowledge

concerning lengths, areas, and volumes.

 

(image from dreamstime.com)

so...

Fractals 

are shapes made by lines...

just like you find in your basic geometry

where every line is represented by a number

 when you change the numbers you change the shapes made by the lines

When you start doing more and more crazy things with the numbers,

the lines go crazy too, and when you feed a whole blackboard full of numbers

into an equation which produces countless repetitions

you can have a very simple design which goes berzerk, repeating itself to infinity

or at least beyond the reach of ordinary human perception.

 

 

When the Dollmaker was a kid,  geometry didn't look like this!

Yet, this snakey yum-yum thing is just a mathematical formula

repeating itself with wild abandon.

 

*************************

An Example using the  +

(this ceaseless repetition is called "iteration")

 

 

Here we have a straight line, crossed once to make a "plus".

 Keep crossing every straight line... (that is the "Production Rule" in this case)

and you get a much more decorative plus made up of bunches of little plusses...

so this would be called

the "PLUS  FRACTAL"

no matter how we ZOOM, inwards or outwards, 

the details and shapes, whether large or small,

resemble the shape of the original image.

This is what is meant by self-similarity.

 

A Fractal can be anything that contains

 self-similar images within itself. 

 

The smaller branches look like the larger tree.

Coastlines, clouds, rivers, and leaves

all contain self-similar patterns within themselves.

The human circulatory and bronchial systems are fractal in nature. 

 Blood vessels and bronchial passages

 keep dividing into smaller and smaller self-similar branches.

 

 

"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty." 

-- Bertrand Russell, from The Study of Mathematics: Philosophical Essays

 

 

 

 

   Now of course, with a very rigidly self-similar image,

there's not really much point in zooming in...

other than to hypnotize yourself....

as everything is the same;

small detail looks like large detail,

continuing on into infinity

as the Fractal keeps repeating itself.

 

  

 

like they say... As Above, so Below...

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

->  t

 

Not Quite So Similar

Fortunately for fractal enthusiasts, that isn't all there is to it...

Perhaps it is just in our natures to love deviance,

to slide away from rigid systems which repeat themselves endlessly.....

but it is a great joy to just go in and

 change the parameters....

Just a teeny deviation in the formula

+

in the location, length or angle of our friendly little PLUS...

( like, if instead of a  +  the original geometric shape changed to a  t )

 

KA-POWWY!

 

 Any tiny change anywhere in the formula- multiplied thousands of times-

can and will cause major mathematical

(and therefore visual) tsunamis.....

 

Slight Changes in Production Rules

let loose Giant Twists of COLOR!

     

The shapes and forms tease us with a little bit of familiarity,

they tantalize us with new and unexpected twists.

We can explore the passageways of a single fractal design for hours.

 We could end up seeing something that nobody has ever seen before.   

 

 This is what makes fractal exploration so intriguing.

 

 

Of course we have to shout a mightly HAIL!

for the computers who do all the iterating (pattern repetitions)

and a big cheer for Programs which translate the endless mathematical configuring

into such glorious fantastical imagery, that we might happily zoom around,

 changing the parameters of images and losing our way in the dense twisted forests

 of color and form.

 

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

   Fractals Demonstrate Chaos Theory  

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Remember in the film "Jurassic Park"

when Jeff Goldblum (playing Ian Malcolm, a Mathematician)

 starts talking about

 Chaos Theory...

"Chaos" implying the existence of unpredictable or random behavior

with a Sensitivity to the idea that small differences

 introduced into initial conditions

have dramatically significant effects on the system in the long run.

In Jurassic Park, with reference to Chaos Theory (and breeding dinosaurs),

the Mathematician warns that complex systems,

 even nice neat linear systems which ought to be predictable,

will often exhibit wildly unpredictable behavior.

 And it's true that Scientists in many fields,

stumped by mysterious deviations from expected results and feeling uncomfortably human,

 have had to grudgingly admit that it would be a good idea

to find a way to start factoring in Chaos.

 

The Dollmaker only brings it up because

 Chaos Theory definitely describes Fractals.

(It also describes weather, art, and raising children...)

 

 

*********************************************

   "Prediction is difficult, especially the future."

-Niels Bohr

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

 

...who knows....

 where the definition of a Fractal may lead...

how the Thinkers of our Time will apply Fractal Theory globally

and also zoom in to a personal level...

After all, Fractal images do tend to whisper to us

to ponder the ceaseless self-similar repetitions in our own worlds...

 

 

 a Fractal State of Mind 

http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=967

 

til next time.....

 

Most of the fractal images used here are from Enjoey Designs

(delightful and free... check them out)

http://www.sgeier.net/fractals/indexe.php

-----------------------------------------------

Want to know more....?

For a wonderful simple tutorial on

  Fractals

http://arcytech.org/java/fractals/

 

*********************************************

Animated Fractals...  awesome site:

http://abm-enterprises.net/animations/celticfractal.gif

.....................................................

 

curious about...

 Chaos Theory

http://www.fractalwisdom.com/

................................................................................................

 

also, google:

   Free Fractal-Making Programs 

for a free passage into other worlds....

 

 

 

 

 

 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

************************************************************************************************************************

 

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

   If you feel powerless, learn something. Knowledge is power.    

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

****************************************************************************