Posted on 12/30/2013 10:06:59 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: What strange world is this? Pictured above is no real place but rather a purely mathematical visualization of a generalization of a fractal into three dimensions. Classical fractal diagrams are typically confined to the two dimensions inherent in the complex number plane, demarking regions where an iterative function diverges. Recently explored additions expand the Mandelbrot set of fractals to three dimensions with prescriptions dubbed Mandelbox and Mandelbulb sets. The results are often visually stunning creations of virtual worlds with limitless detail, some of which you can fly through. Pictured above is one such mathematical fantasy, possibly reminiscent of some sort of steam-punkian, quantum-mechanical landscape.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit & Copyright: Jos Leys (Mathematical Imagery), Ultra Fractal]
Please, please, venture a guess as to what this APOD has to do with Astronomy?
Picky, picky, picky. ;’)
Fractals are MUCH prettier in one dimenstion, IMHO!
The Mandelbrot set is much bigger than the entire physical universe. It is a universe of universes, infinite.
One could argue that those who explore it engaging in a type of astronomy, at least in an abstract sense.
In any event, I think that the type of curiosity that motivates one to explore the physical universe is probably related to the type of curiosity that motivates those who explore the Mandelbrot set.
Ping
It’s an artist’s “abstract” construct depicting the degradation of present-day society, representing the collective suckling & draining of the Government teat ....
Just about everything in nature has a fractal dimension, from galaxies to coastlines. Programs with fractal bases are what is used by CGI folk when they want to create a visualization of a fictional planet, because they look much more real than just about anything else.
In fact, folks have found fractals embedded in physical processes such as phase transitions from liquid to solid.
It's more relavant than you think, and besides, fractals look cool. :-)
I've played with mandelbulb before, but I really couldn't get anything cool out of it.
Looks to me like a 3-D image of the Obamacare Bureaucracy.
The big orb in the middle would be the Death Panel.
Sorry - Ping to #10.
LOL, that works too ;)
Either way, we’re fract’ ....
I was there once in the 70s.
That’s the thing about “art” — it’s not supposed to make sense ...
My daughter said that reminds her of the pictures she put in her school project on LSD. She had the second best project, but the guy with the project on mushrooms beat her.
"I have this philosophy of goodness. Mathematics should contain goodness. So in the case of the elliptic equation, one might call the equation good if it is parameterized by a modular form. I expect all elliptic equations to be good. It's a rather crude philosophy but one can always take it as a starting point. Then, of course, I had to develop various technical reasons for the conjecture. I might say the conjecture stemmed from that philosophy of goodness. Most mathematicians do mathematics from an aesthetic point of view and that philosophy of goodness comes from my aesthetic viewpoint."
This then newly discovered relationship twixt elliptic equations and modular forms, seemed secondary to Shimura if it was not "good". In the sense that mathematics seems wedded to the structure of the universe, I for example, take this as strong evidence for God in existence, especially given the recent discovery of another separate "language" encoded deep within the DNA molecule itself. This sense of "mapping" via mathematics and physics seems to me to undercut randomness being from what Creation was wrought.
Gads, that’s hideous.
If zits were lifeforms, there you go.
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