Today's Featured Article - Fractals
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A fractal is a geometric object which is rough or irregular on all scales of length, and therefore appears to be 'broken up' in a radical way. Fractals can be most simply defined as images that can be divided into parts, each of which is similar to the original object. Fractals are said to possess infinite detail, and some of them have a self-similar structure that occurs at different scales, or levels of magnification. In many cases, a fractal can be generated by a repeating pattern, in a typically recursive or iterative process. The term fractal was coined in 1975 by Benoît Mandelbrot, from the Latin fractus or "broken". Before Mandelbrot coined his term, the common name for such structures (the Koch snowflake, for example) was monster curve.
Fractals of many kinds were originally studied as mathematical objects. Fractal geometry is the branch of mathematics which studies the properties and behavior of fractals. It describes many situations which cannot be explained easily by classical geometry, and has often been applied in science, technology, and computer-generated art. The conceptual roots of fractals can be traced to attempts to measure the size of objects for which traditional definitions based on Euclidean geometry or calculus fail.
for more info, pls refer to wiki
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I hate those pictures. Make me giddy and will vomit in less than five minutes.
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i collect them
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Damn. It's this that makes fibonacci and some types of programming difficult.
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fusion of maths and computing and art......i think quite cool leh
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Not cool lah. Those pictures make me sick.
Somehow, it has a 3-D feeling. -
those 3D pictures then headache for me ah
mus conc on one spot to see the "hidden" image
i stare until my eyes pak jiao liao oso cannot see
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What it does is just burn an image in your eye so that you can see the "ghost" of the image.Originally posted by FireIce:those 3D pictures then headache for me ah
mus conc on one spot to see the "hidden" image
i stare until my eyes pak jiao liao oso cannot see 
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You stare untill eyes pak jiao, I see only giddy. Cannot tahan. If I stare longer than 5 minutes, will vomit.Originally posted by FireIce:those 3D pictures then headache for me ah
mus conc on one spot to see the "hidden" image
i stare until my eyes pak jiao liao oso cannot see -
I feel a little giddy staring at it for a few mins too...Originally posted by ndmmxiaomayi:You stare untill eyes pak jiao, I see only giddy. Cannot tahan. If I stare longer than 5 minutes, will vomit.
But the patterns are nice though... -
I felt that they are nice too, but my body cannot take those things....Originally posted by chanff8:I feel a little giddy staring at it for a few mins too...
But the patterns are nice though...
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fractals lies on the transition between order and chaos, it is neither ordered nor chaotic but it is neither not ordered nor not chaotic either. it is postulated and proven in some instances that life on earth is possible only on the transitional space between order and chaos. it is because if earth is in the ordered space, it is not able to allow for evolution because everything is too stable and therefore static while on the other hand, if earth is in the chaotic space, it will be too unstable for evolution to test its fitness, that is, everything changes too fast at a slight change in condition (our envirnoment in this context).
therefore, if the postulation is correct, fractals is a natural consequence of our earth being in the transitional space for life to be possible. and physicsts have found out that one of the necessary but not sufficient requirement for fractals to occur is to have at least 3 dimensions, which implies that there could be other types of planets with more than 3 dimensions that could allow life to be possible......metaphysics. -
Wah, you are not coming to IT forum to preach about science, are you? Got science forum, you know.Originally posted by sherling22:fractals lies on the transition between order and chaos, it is neither ordered nor chaotic but it is neither not ordered nor not chaotic either. it is postulated and proven in some instances that life on earth is possible only on the transitional space between order and chaos. it is because if earth is in the ordered space, it is not able to allow for evolution because everything is too stable and therefore static while on the other hand, if earth is in the chaotic space, it will be too unstable for evolution to test its fitness, that is, everything changes too fast at a slight change in condition (our envirnoment in this context).
therefore, if the postulation is correct, fractals is a natural consequence of our earth being in the transitional space for life to be possible. and physicsts have found out that one of the necessary but not sufficient requirement for fractals to occur is to have at least 3 dimensions, which implies that there could be other types of planets with more than 3 dimensions that could allow life to be possible......metaphysics.
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Originally posted by sherling22:fractals lies on the transition between order and chaos, it is neither ordered nor chaotic but it is neither not ordered nor not chaotic either. it is postulated and proven in some instances that life on earth is possible only on the transitional space between order and chaos. it is because if earth is in the ordered space, it is not able to allow for evolution because everything is too stable and therefore static while on the other hand, if earth is in the chaotic space, it will be too unstable for evolution to test its fitness, that is, everything changes too fast at a slight change in condition (our envirnoment in this context).
therefore, if the postulation is correct, fractals is a natural consequence of our earth being in the transitional space for life to be possible. and physicsts have found out that one of the necessary but not sufficient requirement for fractals to occur is to have at least 3 dimensions, which implies that there could be other types of planets with more than 3 dimensions that could allow life to be possible......metaphysics.
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Ignore that thing about chaos and order. It is just some chim theories that RP students learn. Trying to boast their knowledge here.Originally posted by lpx88: -
just some comments........
sometimes we constrain our minds when we draw imaginary boundaries between different fields, which on closer inspection, they comes from the same root. for instance, fractals is basically a mathematical theory but it was applied in physics and later in computer science. one of the methods to think out of the box is not to constraint our mind and we could be creative. for example, fusion crusine emerged out of experimenting different food cultures.
many fields are also interdependent on each other for their advancements. for example, the field of computer science emerged with application of Turing's mathematical theory and discrete maths. now, computer science drives the development of the maths, sciences and engineering. for example, high performance computing is used to design faster and more complex CPU chips which in turn drives computer science. a lot of physicsts are mathematicians, computer scientists are applied mathematicians or engineers, biologists are chemists etc. most if not all the real life problems are multi-disciplinary and it really helps to know how a field is affected by other fields and how it will affect other fields. IT is never an isolated field, but rather, it is a field that helps to solve myriad types of real life problems.
being showy of my knowledge is my last thought. in fact, i dun know many uncountable things, worse still, i dun even know what i dun know. my perspective is that knowledge should be like blood, i.e., it must be allowed to flow. i thought it might be interesting to some of you to share what i know abt fractals and i also hv benefitted personally from knowledge that are shared by other fellow forumites too. as a matter of fact, i thought i know a lot about fractals, but when i finished reading the complete wiki page, i realised there are other missing pieces that i dun know, so i know what i dun know now. we live in an information overload era and we only hv 24hrs a day, so we hv to depend on frens to learn new knowledge.
(of course, i can understand the benefit of classifying fields into their respective names and jargons. it faciliates communication and focus.) -
Haha, I know that. I was making fun of you. But seriously, it is too chim for those tech guys here. They need understand some things first. Going straight into chaos and order to explain fractuals is very hasty.Originally posted by sherling22:just some comments........
sometimes we constrain our minds when we draw imaginary boundaries between different fields, which on closer inspection, they comes from the same root. for instance, fractals is basically a mathematical theory but it was applied in physics and later in computer science. one of the methods to think out of the box is not to constraint our mind and we could be creative. for example, fusion crusine emerged out of experimenting different food cultures.
many fields are also interdependent on each other for their advancements. for example, the field of computer science emerged with application of Turing's mathematical theory and discrete maths. now, computer science drives the development of the maths, sciences and engineering. for example, high performance computing is used to design faster and more complex CPU chips which in turn drives computer science. a lot of physicsts are mathematicians, computer scientists are applied mathematicians or engineers, biologists are chemists etc. most if not all the real life problems are multi-disciplinary and it really helps to know how a field is affected by other fields and how it will affect other fields. IT is never an isolated field, but rather, it is a field that helps to solve myriad types of real life problems.
being showy of my knowledge is my last thought. in fact, i dun know many uncountable things, worse still, i dun even know what i dun know. my perspective is that knowledge should be like blood, i.e., it must be allowed to flow. i thought it might be interesting to some of you to share what i know abt fractals and i also hv benefitted personally from knowledge that are shared by other fellow forumites too. as a matter of fact, i thought i know a lot about fractals, but when i finished reading the complete wiki page, i realised there are other missing pieces that i dun know, so i know what i dun know now. we live in an information overload era and we only hv 24hrs a day, so we hv to depend on frens to learn new knowledge.
(of course, i can understand the benefit of classifying fields into their respective names and jargons. it faciliates communication and focus.)
Edit: Don't need to go too deep. Just make this place fun, if not too serious liao people will go away.