Fractals and Mandelbrots

[Jezza]

OK not everybodies cup of tea. I was looking for a Fractal generator and came across VisualBots which is compatible with Excel and produces some astounding images. Thought I would share

<IMG SRC=http://www.visualbots.com/Images/m_set_project.jpg>

[JohnGray]

In one of the more unusual examples of research, Mandelbrot worked at IBM for 32 years! (Not a lot of people know that...)

John

[Jezza]

...but a lot do now. <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

He worked in the Research centre in Yorktown Heights, New York.....funnily enough I am on that chapter in my book at the moment (Chaos by James Gleick) <img src=/S/clever.gif border=0 alt=clever width=15 height=15>

[JohnGray]

Brilliant book, isn't it?

John

[Jezza]

In between rendering Mandelbrot fractals in POV-Ray I haven't been able to put it down tonight

[stuck]

If you can run DOS then you can't beat FRACTINT v20.0:
http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/fractint/fractint.html
A version for Windows 3, that I can run under Win98, exists as well. There's a link to Winfract 18.21 somewhere here:
http://spanky.triumf.ca/www/fractint/getting.html

I can't remember how I did the texturing in this pic but the base image was from FRACTINT

Ken
edited to add:
It looks like there is still life in this thing, certainly as a Linux port:
http://www.fractint.org/

[bigaldoc]

I'd bet that there are at least TWO of us here in The Lounge who were aware... You'll have to guess who the other one is... His Lounge profile gives him away, I think...

[Jezza]

<img src=/S/whisper.gif border=0 alt=whisper width=29 height=17>There are in fact 7 stated ex-employees of IBM who are members of the Lounge, some not active, some very active

[bigaldoc]

Oh yeah, you're rght I'm sure. But the fella I'm talking about spent his career at the TJ Watson Research Center. My interest in the topic is that I was always interested in the IBM Fellows since we had (at various times) at least two of 'em here in Lexington. Obviously, I know nothing about Dr. Mandelbrot except an admiration for his work AND background.

[Jezza]

<img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15> I know who you are talking about, I wonder if that Lounger will comment and see if they actually cross paths with him.....

[stuck]

It's funny how chaos has an order to it...

The school my eldest son attends organises an annual science lecture. This year's bash was last night and, spookily, the subject was "Is Science Chaotic?", the speakers were Jim Matthews and Sarah Thompson from the Uni. of York Physics Dept. They only explored the simple bifurcation formula:
x(n+1) = kxn(1-xn)
but they did it in a very entertaining manner such that even my younger son (age 10) could follow it. They did it in the form of a dialogue with Prof Matthews in the role of the traditional physicist, "Give me enough equations and I can predict anything" - while Dr Thompson tried to convince him otherwise.

The equation looks simple but as you increase k the next term in the series changes from being a simple linear relationship to periodic (period 2), to periodic (period 4), to chaotic when the next term seems to be random. They mentioned that lots of people are studying stock market prices because while much of that is truly random there is a strong chaotic pattern to it as well. My boys are planning on solving that problem this evening so they can retire before they have to go to work.

I'll let you know if they suceed.

Ken