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Fractal Geometry

James Fielder

Why is geometry often described as "cold" and "dry"? One reason lies in its inability to describe the shape of a cloud, a mountain, or a tree. Clouds are not spheres, mountains not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line. The opening of "The Fractal Geometry of Nature" by Benoit Mandelbrot Take a point called Z in the complex plane Let Z1 be Z squared plus C And Z2 is Z1 squared plus C And Z3 is Z2 squared plus C and so on If the series of Zs should always stay Close to Z and never trend away That point is in the Mandelbrot Set Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton

Contents
1 2 Introduction Dening Fractal Geometry 2.1 Structure on arbitrarily small scales . 2.2 Self-similarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Hausdorff dimension . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 The four types of Fractal . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Iterated Function Systems . . 2.4.2 Recursively Dened Fractals 2.4.3 Random Fractals . . . . . . . . 2.4.4 Chaotic Attractors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 8 8 9 10

The History of Fractal Geometry 3.1 Set Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 The Cantor Ternary Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 The Weierstrass Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 The Koch Snowake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 The Sierpi nski Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 The Julia and Fatou set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6 Benoit Mandelbrot, his set, and the essay that started it all 3.7 After Mandelbrot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 5 6

Generating images of Fractals Fractals in Art Fractals in Science and Nature 6.1 Fractals in Weather analysis . . 6.2 Fractals in Theoretical Physics 6.3 Fractals in Biological systems . 6.4 A few other examples . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10 11 12 12 12 12 13 13

Introduction

Why are fractals just so fascinating? These enigmatic and beautiful objects have been capturing peoples imagination for many years, and being mathematically minded myself, it is no surprise that I fell in love with them when I rst laid eyes on them. Fractals are fascinating to look at, and even more mesmerizing to play with on a computer. In this project, I hope to demonstrate how visually and mathematically pleasing fractal geometry is. I hope to show you how the stunning images of fractals that are available today, particularly on the Internet, are generated and rendered. Finally I hope to show why fractals are more than just mere mathematical curiosities; that they have important and powerful uses in elds as far reaching as theoretical physics to medicine and biochemistry. Also to show that fractals are still an emerging eld with exciting developments to be found.

Dening Fractal Geometry

Before any of the discussion of the properties and interesting aspects of fractal geometry, we must understand exactly what a fractal is, and what these denitions actually mean. There are 3 dening properties of fractals that all mathematicians seem to be able to agree on. [25] A ne structure on arbitrarily small scales, which makes it very difcult if not impossible to describe it in terms of standard Euclidean geometry. [25] Self-similarity throughout the structure of the fractal. A Hausdorff dimension which is greater than its topological dimension. [17] In order to fully understand these, we must consider each one of them separately.

2.1

Structure on arbitrarily small scales

The most direct and succinct denition you will commonly hear of a fractal is that one can zoom innitely on the shape, and still see an ever increasing amount of detail. [16] This captures many peoples initial fascination with fractals, as it seems strange that the detail you are seeing can go on forever, to scales that would make the size of the universe seem tiny, and still continue. This leads onto self similarity.

2.2

Self-similarity

As one continuous to explore a fractal, structures that have been seen before will begin to repeat themselves. For example, zooming in on certain places in the Mandelbrot set will lead to objects within the set that look like the set again. This self-similarity is one of the main factors that gives fractals their unique properties. There are three types of self similarity: Exact self-similarity, quasi self-similarity and statistical self-similarity. Exact self-similarity : The strongest form of self-similarity, this implies that the fractal looks identical at all scales. This is usually something that fractals dened by iterated function systems have. A good example is the Koch snowake. [25] Quasi self-similarity : Fractals like this are not exactly the same on all scales, but have features which recur throughout the object. Fractals dened by recursion relations usually exhibit this behaviour, and a good example of this would be the Mandelbrot set. [20] Statistical self-similarity : This is usually exhibited by random fractals, generated by processes like random walks (brownian motion is a good example of this). For this self-similarity, only statistical measures or numerical quantities calculated (for example, fractal dimension) from the fractal are preserved from one scale to another. These generally do not look self-similar. [25, 17]

2.3

Hausdorff dimension

The Hausdorff dimension of an object is widely referred to as the fractal dimension of a shape. While there are other notions of dimension, the Hausdorff measure is regarded as being the most relevant in fractal geometry. Take a fractal set in a metric space1 and consider covers of it by balls 2 . Measure the volume of such covers by summing the volume of the balls and pretending each ball has dimension d , i.e. that d 2 the volume of a ball of radius r is r d where is the gamma function. Note Vd the minimal ( d + 1 ) 2 volume of such covers. [7, 12, 17] Then, for some d0 , the Vd0 is nite, and for all d < d0 (resp. d > d0 ) Vd is innite (resp. zero). This value d0 is the Hausdorff dimension of the set and therefore the Hausdorff dimension of the fractal. Since the function to calculate the volume of the spheres is continuous, the Hausdorff dimension can take any positive value. This is unlike the topological dimension of a fractal, which is more like the concept that one generally has of dimension, which is the number of points required to fully dene any place in that space. [7, 12, 13, 17, 5]

2.4

The four types of Fractal

There are three main types of fractals, which exhibit the three types of self-similarity. These are: Iterated function systems, recursively dened fractals and random fractals. It is also worth considering chaotic attractors. Let us examine these four separately.
A space endowed with a distance map, for example any Euclidean space n for n . The ball of center P and radius r is the set of points of distance to P less than r ; this concept generalizes that of discs in the plane.
1 2

2.4.1

Iterated Function Systems

Iterated function systems were primarily introduced by the mathematician John E. Hutchinson but were popularised by Michael Barnsley in his book "Fractals Everywhere". The idea of an iterated function system is that one takes a space on which the functions will act, for example 2 being the euclidean plane, and then some functions fn where n . The next points are calculated by applying one of the functions to the last points: ( x i + 1 , y i + 1 ) = f ( x i , y i ) [5] Where i is one of the iteration steps, and is one of the functions fn which is chosen randomly. The functions will usually have a probability of being chosen in the "chaos game" associated with them. Many fractals which originally were not given as iterated function systems can be translated into them, for example, in the start of Barnsleys "Superfractals" book he gives an example of an iterated function system which generates the Sierpi nski triangle. The most famous example of an iterated function system is probably Barnsleys fern, which looks exactly as the name would imply, and is a striking example of nature and fractal geometry coinciding. [5] 2.4.2 Recursively Dened Fractals

Recursively dened fractals are the most well known form of fractals, and are the kind that includes the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. Images of such fractals are most commonly in the complex plane, , as here processes like exponentiation can produce interesting images and will not always trend away to intity for obvious values. Recursively dened fractals are of the form f :X X where X is the space and f is the function that is being applied. In terms of points, these are usually polynomial equations in the complex plane that are repeated, with the addition of a constant. Symbolically this is: f : z zk + c where f is the function, z is a complex number, k is some power 3 to raise the number to and k . These are most commonly plotted using escape time algorithms, which we will discuss later. [25, 16, 17] 2.4.3 Random Fractals

Random fractals are generated by random processes like Brownian motion. Random fractals are generated by stochastic processes rather than deterministic ones like the Mandelbrot set. Fractals of this kind typically show very little self similarity. [17] 2.4.4 Chaotic Attractors

While really a topic from chaos theory, chaotic attractors do show fractal behaviour and there are interesting and sometimes completely unexpected links between fractal geometry and chaos theory. [25, 2] Chaotic or strange attractors come from the solutions to differential equations that are very sensitive to initial conditions. [4] An interesting example of this is the logistic map, which shares some
3

The numbers are nearly always in

although fractals do exist that have a complex power in them.

interesting geometric features with the Mandelbrot set, and is dened by: xn +1 = r xn (1 xn ) where x is the population at some time. This equation is the solution of differential equations about population growth dependent on rate of reproduction and other factors. When varying the constant r which is the factor which scales for reproduction rate, at rst an increasing r will result in a higher population as expected. However as r increases, the population will oscillate between two levels, and then four, and then eight, and so on. For r > 3.57 the population will suddenly become chaotic4 . A graph of r against initial population will exhibit fractal behaviour. The logistic map is not an isolated example; there are many other chaotic phenomenon which will show fractal behaviour when they are plotted. Once again, this shows that the nature of fractals is more than theoretical; they have plenty of uses in the real world. [2, 3, 4]

The History of Fractal Geometry

The term Fractal was originally coined by Benoit Mandelbrot in his original paper on fractal geometry [17], however the history of these objects starts a long time before Mandelbrot wrote that essay, with the invention of set theory and the ideas surrounding that.

3.1

Set Theory

While the inventors of set theory would have no idea that their language would be used to describe fractal geometry (and indeed for many other applications, set theory is ubiquitous throughout mathematics and science) they would form some of the rst objects that could be regarded as fractals, and give the language in which all of the mathematics of fractals would be written. Set theory was founded in a single paper by Georg Cantor in 1874, entitled "On a Characteristic Property of All Real Algebraic Numbers" and in this one paper, Cantor spawned much of modern mathematics. [21] The paper considered numbers which would be solutions to an equation such as: ai x n + ai 1 x n 1 + ai 2 x n 2 + + a1 x + a0 = 0 Cantor shows that there are the same number of roots to an equation such as this as there are natural numbers, and his contempories would prove that numbers such as and e could never be the roots of an equation such as this. Cantor also went on to prove that there are more real numbers than natural numbers, with his famous diagonal argument, and that n is of the same innite size as . However, it is the some of the objects that Cantor would imagine as part of his proofs that are most interesting when looking at set theory from the point of view of fractal geometry. While Cantor was considering the implications of set theory, he would come up with one of the very rst fractal objects: the cantor ternary set. [21, 6] 3.1.1 The Cantor Ternary Set

The denition of the cantor ternary set 5 is very simple: take a unit interval, [0,1], and remove the middle third. Now repeat for the two remaining pieces. Repeat ad innitum, and you have the set.
Although, above r > 3.57 there are a few isolated values which will give none chaotic behaviour. Cantor himself did not imagine or discuss the ternary set for anything more than a passing remark, more an abstracted version of it for any repeated removal of a part of the interval. The ternary set is a more modern way of looking at Cantors idea.
4 5

Figure 1: The Cantor Ternary Set Interestingly, if one considers the length of the set that has been taken away, then a surprising 2n result will be found. The length that has been removed at each section is equal to n +1 where n is the 3 number of iterations. If we sum this between zero and innity 6 then one will obtain the following:
n =0

2n 3
n +1

1 3

1 1 2 3

=1

This is interesting because it implies that even after removing an innite number of thirds of the interval [0,1] the length of the line segment is still the same! In my opinion this shows how counter intuitive geometries such as these can be, as this implies there are no members of the set, and yet it is easy to see that there are. The set shows self similar behaviour like all fractals, as any part of the set can be considered another enlarged and then translated. In many ways this is a prototypical fractal, the rst kind which would help to establish fractal geometry as its own discipline. [6]

3.2

The Weierstrass Function

One of Cantors contemporaries and supporters was a mathematician called Karl Weierstrass. Weierstrass was the mathematician who proved that was a none algebraic number. While the revolution of set theory was occurring, calculus was being formalized into the rigorous study called analysis. Weierstrass originally published his function to challenge the notion that all functions that are continuous are differentiable. The function is: f (x ) =
n =0

a n cos( b n x )

3 Where 0 < a < 1, b is a positive odd integer and a b > 1 + . 2 The function is nowhere differentiable, as much like a fractal it has innite detail when graphed. This means it is impossible to draw a tangent line at any point, and therefore meaning it is nowhere differentiable. The Weierstrass function is another proto-fractal, although it is closer to what we would recognise today as a fractal than the cantor set. [23]

3.3

The Koch Snowake

The Kock snowake is a curve that was constructed by Helge von Koch is another one of the proto-fractals, and was constructed due to Kochs dissatisfaction with Weierstrasss function to show that not all functions are continuous. In contrast to Weierstrass, Kochs idea is very simple indeed. [26]
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This is possible because it forms a geometric sequence with rst term

2 and common ratio . 3 3

Take an equilateral triangle. On the three faces of the triangle, remove the middle third of each of the lines. Replace with another two lines to form an equilateral triangle with the part that has been removed. Repeat for all line segments.

Figure 2: The Koch snowake for the rst 6 iterations. The Koch snowake shares the typical features of a fractal, such as an innite perimeter enclosing a nite area. It it easy to see why this is the case. After each iteration the perimeter of the shape will have increased by 4 and therefore after n iterations the perimeter will be ( 4 )n , and as n tends to 3 3 n 4 innity lim = . n 3 To calculate the area [1] inside the snowake, one has to consider the initial area of the triangle, and the area added after each iteration. If we let a be the side length of the equilateral triangle then 3 a2 . After each iteration the side length of the triangles that are added decreases the initial area is: 4 1 by 3 . For the rst iteration, 3 triangles are added. After this, 3 4k 1 triangles are added on, where k is the number of iterations. Therefore, the area of triangles that we add on at iteration k will be equal to: 3 a 2 3 2 3 4 k 1 3 4 k 1 = a 4 3k 4 9k

If we sum this from the 0 iteration (in this case just the rst area) to the iteration n then we will obtain: 3 4 a2 1 +
n k =1

3 4 k 1 9k

If we now allow n then the area of the koch snowake will be obtained 7 . lim 3 4 a
2 n

1+
k =1

3 4 k 1 9
k

2 3 5

a2

This shows that somewhat counter intuitively that an nite area can be contained within an innite perimeter. [26, 1, 17]

3.4

The Sierpi nski Triangle

A few years after Koch had produced his snowake, a similar fractal would be produced by a Polish mathematican called Wacaw Sierpi nski. Where Koch had added triangles, Sierpi nski would take them away. If one considers an equilateral triangle, and removes a triangle from the centre such that there are three remaining triangles of the same size. Now repeat this for the remaining triangles. Continue to innity. The Sierpi nski triangle is another interesting fractal, and indeed, it is Figure 3: The rst 6 iterations of the Sierpi nski triangle a family of similar fractals, including the Sierpi nski Carpet. As per usual with fractals, it shows self similar behaviour, it being a copy of itself translated and enlarged. [24, 25, 5, 22]

3.5

The Julia and Fatou set

The Julia and Fatou sets are the basis of the Mandelbrot set that we will later explore, however they are fractals themselves. First we must consider what the Fatou set is. The Fatou and Julia sets are ideas from dynamic systems and chaos research, and indeed, fractals and chaos do go hand in hand. A Fatou set is a set such that some function f does not exceed some value and go off to innity when repeatedly iterated in the complex plane 8 or does go off to intity, but has well dened propertises as it does for some complex number z . Symbolically: f : . The function f must be holomorphic 9 and generally will be a polynomial. [7] The Julia set is the compliment of the Fatou set, meaning that it is all of the points not in the Fatou set which are in the complex plane, .
Another geometric sequence, this time with common ratio 4 . 9 It does not have to be the complex plane, but all well known fractals are in the complex plane, so we will use it for our denition. 9 Essentially this means innitely differentiable.
7 8

Commonly, the images that one will see of the Julia set are so called "Filled" Julia sets. These are when the interior of Julia sets are coloured to show their position with greater clarity to the reader. Symbolically this is: K ( f ) = { z : f (k ) ( z ) as k } The lled Julia set only exists for a f which is polynomial as for a polynomial f the Julia set will be the boundary of those that do go off to innity. This is why a Filled Julia set is useful, as it shows the section of the plane that will remain nite when iterated innitely. It is worth also considering the difference between a connected and unconnected Julia set. Connected and unconnected have the meanings you would expect them to have, when a connected set is plotted, there is no point where there is a discontinuity in the set. That is, the set is whole, and to use an analogy you could run your nger along the graph of the set without having to lift it from the page. The unconnected set is the opposite, there are breaks in the graphs of the set. This will particularly come in useful for the Mandelbrot set, as we will now see. [7, 14, 15]

3.6

Benoit Mandelbrot, his set, and the essay that started it all

Benoit Mandelbrot is widely considered the father of Fractal Geometry by many, and while other mathematicians have made great contributions in the eld, no one else has brought fractals to the attention of the world quite like Mandelbrot did. While working at IBM, Mandelbrot was studying the so called parameter plane of the connected Julia sets, for a quadratic f . That is, all quadratic Julia sets can be represented as f : z z 2 + c where z is a complex number, and c is a complex constant. Mandelbrot was experimenting with the values of c such that when z = 0 + 0i is iterated innitely it does not escape to innity. When the values of c are plotted that make the Julia sets connected, and do not escape to innity when iterated, you obtain the Mandelbrot set. As iconic as it is, I would like to include a picture of it.

Figure 4: The Mandelbrot Set

We will discuss the colouring and ways the computer plots the set and fractals in general later in the essay. Mandelbrot rst introduced his idea of a fractal in his paper "How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension" published in 1967. In it, he discusses the paradox that the length of coastlines will increase as the length of the measuring device decreases, and denes the dimension of the coastline in a way that allows it to be fractional, and related to the measuring device being used. It would be in 1975 that Mandelbrot would coin the term fractal for objects whos Hausdorff dimension was fractional, in his paper "Les objets fractals, forme, hasard et dimension" which translates to "Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension". Mandelbrot would nally get all of his ideas together in his book "The Fractal Geometry of Nature" and it was this book that brought fractals into the mathematical and scientic consciousness, and silenced critics who had believed that fractal geometry was without applications in the real world and was just an artifact of mathematics and good programming. While the developments in fractal geometry were taking place, similar developments in chaos theory were taking place, and the two ideas would feed into one another, sharing similar roots mathematically. Between the ideas of chaos theory and fractal geometry, many believe that the idea of a clockwork universe 10 was brought down entirely. Indeed, as mentioned earlier there are surprising links between the Mandelbrot set and an idea from chaotic systems called the logistic map, and objects called chaotic attractors quite commonly have fractal features. [17, 24, 27, 18]

3.7

After Mandelbrot

Once Mandelbrot had established the eld of fractal geometry it would only be a matter of time before others would start to use his ideas for other uses, and use them they did. From art to theoretical physics, fractals have been used all over. These uses are what the rest of the document will deal with.

Generating images of Fractals

The generation of the images of fractals has been revolutionised by the advent of computers. Plotting images of fractals lend themselves very well to computers, as what is required is simple calculations repeated hundreds or thousands of times, for hundreds or thousands of test points and computers are perfect for such calculations. Indeed, for many years, the beautiful images of the objects that mathematicians were imagining were out of reach for them, due to not being able to perform the necessary calculations to view the images they theorized about. The simplest way of plotting fractals is an escape time algorithm. Since we cannot actually iterate a function to innity, we instead must develop tests to show when the function is going to escape to innity and when it will stay bounded. For the Mandelbrot set, this is easy as it has been proved that once | z | 2 after some number of iterations, then the point will always escape to innity. Other fractals will have similar tests like this. Once a point has been determined to be either in the set or out of it, the point can be plotted appropriately. In order to colour the edge of the fractal one has to consider how quickly a value reached the escape value. Usually, black is the colour that is used for values which do not escape at all and gradually lighter colours imply that after fewer iterations the point escaped to innity, with white meaning that the point immediately passed the test for divergence.
A universe where a knowledge of all of the initial states of all particles and exact knowledge of the laws of physics would allow you to calculate the evolution of the universe from that point onwards exactly.
10

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An interesting optimisation that can be used for the Mandelbrot set is to substitute for z = x + y i and notice what happens when this is squared. z = x + yi z 2 = x 2 y 2 + 2x y i Now when calculating the next value of z in the iteration for the Mandelbrot set one can use these formulas, with c = x0 + y0 i .
2 2 xn +1 = Re( z 2 + c ) = xn yn + x0

yn +1 = Im( z 2 + c ) = 2 xn yn + y0 Another more computationally challenging algorithm to colour a fractal is the Normalized Iteration Count algorithm. The escape time algorithm is quick for colouring, but it produces bands of colours, which can be quite unattractive. The Normalize Iteration Count algorithm is more aesthetically pleasing. The algorithm works by assigning a number to each value of z after however many iterations are being calculated. If this number is v then the formula will be: v = n logP log2 | zn | Where n is the number of iterations, P is the power that is used in the formula for the fractal, for the Mandelbrot set this is 2, and zn is the value of z after n iterations. Once computing this measure the programmer can then assign a more exible array of colours to the fractal, and therefore produce a more aesthetically pleasing image as a result. [17, 25, 24, 27]

Fractals in Art

Fractal artwork has to some extent, always been around. Humans have always been attracted to self-similar shapes, as they are some of the most beautiful shapes found in nature. Of late though, fractals have began to be used in other more interesting places, and found in places that they would not have been expected to be in. One of the most interesting places that fractal geometry has been found is in aerial photographs of African villages. In order to t with their customs they will build their villages into shapes which will follow fractal geometry, which is a particularly amazing idea. The ideas used are beautiful, and the villages they build from the air are also particularly beautiful. These patterns are different dependent on where you go into Africa, and seem to occur all over the content, which shows the unique attraction that humans have towards self-similar geometry. [11] Another interesting place that fractal geometry has been found is in the artwork of Jason Pollock. After mathematically analyzing the patterns that are found in his paintings, mathematicians found that they have features in common with fractal geometry. It has been suggested that this is the reason that Pollocks seemingly chaotic paintings still have a visual appeal to people, as underneath they have a self-similarity on several scales, much like in nature. [8] Recently, the increasing availability of vast amounts of processing power to individuals has meant that fractals have moved from the province of merely academic discussion into something that anyone can play with after downloading a small program from the Internet. My own initial experiences with fractals were like this. This increase in computing power has lead to a wide variety of fractal images being freely available on the Internet, and plenty of resources there for people to nd out about fractal geometry. The great number of free programs to visualise fractals beautifully, and the widely available example implementations of fractals in various programming languages, means that almost anyone can play with these objects, which is a great thing. 11

Fractals in Science and Nature

Since nature is chaotic and self-similar, it was only a matter of time before fractal geometry began to be applied to situations in nature. Fractals scale invariance means they are useful in all sorts of places, such as weather analysis. Here I hope to only show a few of the brilliant examples of fractals in the real world.

6.1

Fractals in Weather analysis

The weather is the classic example of a computationally hard, complex chaotic problem. The equations that govern how the weather evolves over time are a series of difcult partial differential equations with chaotic solutions. However, recently, mathematicians have began to consider how these problems could be looked at using fractal geometry. It is easy to see how the weather shows self-similar behaviour, and how smaller effects can easily feed into larger ones and currents look similar on large scales as they do on small ones. These are not just theoretical predictions of what the weather will look like either, actual weather data has been analysed and shown to have fractal behaviour when looked at. Indeed, both rainfall and clouds already have quite successful fractal models for their behaviour, and so modeling the climate using fractal models certainly does not seem like an impossibility. [19]

6.2

Fractals in Theoretical Physics

The very rst type of fractal which physicists considered was that of Brownian motion. The random motion of a particle held in a uid will form a fractal with statistical self similarity. Another interesting use of fractal geometry is fractal cosmology. While it is not considered a major topic within cosmology, the structure of galaxies and other objects can be considered fractal, and their properties studied. This is a relatively new idea, and therefore has not as of yet produced any majorly large results, but the potential is there for it to produce some interesting ideas. Recent observations also suggest that the overall structure of the universe can be considered fractal in some respects, and the consequences of this are still uncertain. Mandelbrot in his book "The Fractal Geometry of Nature" discusses the use of Fractal geometry in lattice physics, that is the physics of how atoms align themselves within solids. He argues that many of the structures found in already well understood crystals exhibit fractal behaviour and that analysing these properties might lead to a new understanding of how condensed matter acts. Once again, this is due to the fact that small changes in the arrangement of the lattice structure of the solid can cause much larger changes to the overall structure. Finally, fractal structures have been found when observing the magnetic phase-transitions of certain materials, that is the temperatures at which they become magnetic. By considering the mathematics of these transitions, two physicists Yang and Lee would produce another set of fractals. These fractals are just as beautiful as the other examples given so far, and indeed, one of them contains elements of the Mandelbrot set, which is a very interesting and deep coincidence. [17, 9]

6.3

Fractals in Biological systems

One of the most obvious examples of fractals within nature is Barnsleys fern, although this is not an isolated example, as plenty of biological systems show fractal behaviour. An interesting example of this is the growth of bacteria, which spreads out in a pattern that is obviously fractal in nature. These shapes have been proved to be fractal in nature, and while they seem to have little application to biologists, it is an interesting pattern to be aware of.

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In a similar fashion to this, the lungs can be considered fractal, once again with self-similarity down to the small alveoli. When measuring these with smaller and smaller measuring devices the surface area of the alveoli increases dramatically, much like the coastlines which Mandelbrot discusses. The lungs themselves can be visualised as a fractal canopy, which is a form of iterated function system. [9]

6.4

A few other examples


Doctors are considering using fractals to examine heart traces, as there is some evidence that examining the fractal nature of the heart rate allows information to be extracted that would not have otherwise been obtainable. [10] Geologists making models of water moving through soil are exploring using mathematical models for the path of water through the soil. Video games designers and lm makers have used random fractals and iterated function systems to model landscapes, as these produce realistic back drops quickly and easily. [25]

Conclusions

Fractal geometry is still an emerging topic with much left to offer to mathematics and scientic knowledge in general. In this essay I have barely touched the surface of the mathematics and uses of fractals. Fractals are beautiful objects, with remarkable properties that will allow them to continue to be some of the most important objects in mathematics. I predict that as fractals gain more exposure within the scientic community, they will continue to be used in ever more diverse models for physical phenomena. Fractals are now within the general consciousness of our culture, and will continue to inspire both art and science for many years to come. Long may these enigmatic and beautiful objects have the place they deserve.

References
[ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [ 5] [ 6] [ 7] [ 8] [ 9] [10] Area of the koch snowake. URL: http://ecademy.agnesscott.edu/~lriddle/ifs/ksnow/ area.htm. Attractors. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractor. Attractors on scholarpedia. URL: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Attractor. Attractors on wolfram mathworld. URL: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Attractor.html. Michael Barnsley. Superfractals. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Cantor Set. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor_Set. Conversations with Gaetan Bission regarding the Hausdorff dimension and Julia and Fatou Sets. URL: http://www.win.tue.nl/~gbisson/en/. Discover magazine on Jackson Pollocks Paintings with fractals. URL: http : / / discovermagazine.com/2001/nov/featpollock. Fractal Applications. URL: http://library.thinkquest.org/26242/full/ap/ap.html. Fractal heart beat analysis. URL: http://www.physionet.org/tutorials/fmnc/node10. html.

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[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Fractals in africa from TED talks. URL: http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_eglash_on_ african_fractals.html. Hausdorff Dimension. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausdorff_dimension. Hausdorff Dimension Wolfram Mathworld. URL: http : / / mathworld . wolfram . com / HausdorffDimension.html. Julia Set. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_set. Julia Set Wolfram Mathworld. URL: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/JuliaSet.html. Hans Lauwerier. Fractals Images of Chaos. Penguin Books, 1991. Benoit Mandelbrot. The Fractal Geometry of Nature. W. H. Freeman, 1977. Mandelbrot set on wolfram mathworld. URL: http : / / mathworld . wolfram . com / MandelbrotSet.html. NewScientist: Tomorrows weather: Cloudy, with a chance of fractals. URL: http : / / www . newscientist . com / article / mg20427335 . 600 - tomorrows - weather - cloudy - with - a chance-of-fractals.html. Self-Similarity. From MathWorld. URL: http : / / mathworld . wolfram . com / Self Similarity.html. Set theory. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory. Sierpinski Triangle. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle. Weierstrass Function. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function. Wikibook on Fractals. URL: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Fractals. Wikipedia: Fractals. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal. Wikipedia on the koch snowake. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_snowflake. Wikipeida on the Mandelbrot set. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set.

[20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]

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