FRACTALS
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"What's all this
fractal stuff about?" I hear many of you saying. |
Fractals are basically image building blocks which are added together to produce a larger more meaningful picture. A growing fern can be simulated on a computer by using fractal maths where each leaf frond is built up of lots of smaller fronds of a similar structure. Also, fractals are used to generate the impressive landscapes you see on some computer games and a host of other things.
The good thing about fractals is that you can create great images using the fractal technique and some nifty software and you don't even need to know any of the maths which has been used to create the fractals.
For mathematicians it's a good way for them to pretend to be "cool", though as we all know, mathematicians couldn't be cool even if they arranged a party in Antarctica.
There's a great site which explains all the basics about fractals created by Cynthia Lanius which can be found at http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/frac/.
Fractal art is becoming popular as it enables artists to create new futuristic pictures.