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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 196941" data-attributes="member: 2525">[PLAIN]Re: Re: [OT] Star Wars Episode II: AOTC - Easter Egg Hunt[/PLAIN]You do not sound like an idiot.  Fractals are a bit of a complex, somewhat obscure idea.  Here's a brief primer:1. What is a Fractal: Fractals can be anything that contains self-similar images within itself. For example, the human circulatory system is a fractal. If you look at the blood vessels in your hand, they resemble the overall shape that the complete system takes on.A Mandlebrot Fractal is a particular kind of computer-generated fractal named after mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (still quite alive at Yale University), a man who helped to discover the order in fractals. So....2. What is a computer-generated Fractal:  Computer generated fractals are created using fractal geometry. This new kind of geometry dismisses the Euclidean way of looking at the world. A mathematician would tell you that fractals are created at the boundary between chaos and order. To fully understand fractals, one must understand the chaos theory. So...3. What is Chaos Theory: The theory states that everything is subjected to so many variables that it becomes almost, but not completely, random. A meteorologist named Edward Lorenz helped to pioneer the study of chaology when he discovered a disturbing fact. No matter how much information he gathered, his weather predictions would quickly fail because there was no way he could use all the variables of the weather. A small change in the location of a sun spot would be amplified until it had a large impact. This is the basis for the chaos theory. No matter how much information one gathers, it is still not possible to make a completely accurate prediction because he can't take into account the endless amount of variables involved or the impact and feedback caused by a slight change in one of the billions of variables.  So...4. If Chaos Theory says you cannot predicte things, and Fractals are related to Chaos Theory, then how can you create an image of a Fractal? Fractals are not completely chaotic. They have an order to them that keeps them from being totally chaotic or totally orderly.  So....5.  How does this guy Benoit Mandelbrot play into all this?  Benoit Mandelbrot is a scientist who helped to discover the order in fractals. He found the self-similar charactersitics in his fracatal sets.  So...6.  What does a Mandelbrot Fractal look like? The bulk of the Mandelbrot set is the black cardioid. (A cardioid is a heart-shaped figure). It's studded with circles all around its boundary.  The circles around the boundary are also studded with circles. There are infinitely many circles on the cardioid, each of those circles has infinitely many circles on them, and on and on ad infinitum. That makes for a lot of circles!You can see an image of the Mandelbrot Fractal here: <a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ma/gallery/mandel/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ma/gallery/mandel/index.html</a>And you can see part of the picture in Star Wars Ep2 that the rumor claims is a Fractal Mandelbrot here (upper left hand corner) <a href="http://www.benandgrover.com/showImage.asp?imgset=2&img=fl040" target="_blank">http://www.benandgrover.com/showImage.asp?imgset=2&img=fl040</a></blockquote>

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