BENOIT MANDELBROT

WHAT ARE FRACTALS?

Benoit B. Mandelbrot coined the term fractal from the latin word fractus meaning broken and irregular. A geometric pattern that is iterated at ever smaller( or larger ) scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical( Euclidian) geometry. They are infinitely complex patterns that are self similar across different scales. These patterns are extremely familiar since nature is full of fractals. For instance- trees, rivers, coastlines, clouds etc..

EXAMPLES

PROPERTIES OF FRACTALS
SELF SIMILARITY A distinguishing feature of fractals is its property of self similarity i.e. having a sub structure analogous or identical to an overall structure.

EXAMPLES
Water Water Water

Land

Land

Land

Here the coastline, the border between the land and the sea, has bays and peninsulas. As we magnify the coastline we see ever smaller bays and peninsulas. The structure at a large scale is similar to the structure at a small scale. It is similar to itself at different scales.

EXAMPLES

This is the Sierpinski Triangle. In this mathematical object each little piece is an exact smaller copy of the whole object.

PROPERTIES OF FRACTALS
An amazing characteristic aspect of fractals is that they are infinite. A fractal is infinite in two distinct senses, the macro level, and the micro level. Fractals extend to infinitely large values of their co-ordinates, outwards in all directions from the center. It would be like starting at the very center of the universe and then moving outward to try and find the end of the universe. Fractals also have infinite detail , i.e. one can zoom in or out without limit to show ever increasing detail within the image. This feature is one of the key aspects of fractals, whether relative to exploring fractals as an art form, or as found in nature.

FRACTAL DIMENSION
It is an index for characterizing fractal patterns by quantifying their complexity as a ratio of the change in the detail to the change in scale. In other words, it is a measure of the space filling ability. The fractal dimension can by computed using the Hausdorff formula: N = rD where N is the number of self similar pieces r is the number of divisions of the initiator

ILLUSTRATION
KOCH CURVE We begin with a straight line of length 1, called the initiator. We then remove the middle third of the line, and replace it with two lines that each have the same length (1/3) as the remaining lines on each side. This new form is called the generator, because it specifies a rule that is used to generate a new form.
Here

N=4 r=3

ILLUSTRATION
The rule says to take each line and replace it with four lines, each one-third the length of the original.

Thus, D = log N/log r = log 4/ log 3 = 1.26

ILLUSTRATION
SIERPINSKI TRIANGLE

We start with an equilateral triangle, connect the mid-points of the three sides and remove the resulting inner triangle.
Here

N=3 r =2

ILLUSTRATION
On iterating, we get

Thus, D = log N/log r = log 3/ log 2 = 1.585

MANDELBROT SET - THE KING OF FRACTALS

The Mandelbrot set is a particular mathematical set of points whose boundary is a distinctive and easily recognizable twodimensional fractal shape and is named after the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot. This set is a fractal defined by Zn+1 = Zn2 + c where c and Z are complex numbers of the form a + bi

MANDELBROT SET
A complex number c is part of the Mandelbrot set if, when starting with z0 = 0 and applying the iteration repeatedly, the absolute value of zn remains bounded however large n gets i.e M= {c C |lim(n) zn} The Mandelbrot set M is defined by a family of complex quadratic polynomials Pc : c c given by Pc : Z Z2 + c For each c, one considers the behavior of the sequence (0, Pc(0), Pc(Pc(0)), Pc(Pc(Pc(0))),.) obtained by iterating Pc(z), which either escapes to infinity or stays within a disk of some finite radius.

COMPONENTS OF MANDELBROT SET

Cardioid is a heart shaped region. Buds are a circle like shapes connected to the cardioid or other buds. The above two components are connected by only one point called seed point.
cardioid

bud
Seed point

PROPERTIES OF MANDELBROT SET

It is connected. It contains infinite many copies of itself and these copies are connected. The fractal dimension of the set is 2. Its area is finite but its border length is infinite.

CONSTRUCTION
The construction of Mandelbrot set is based on the simple iteration of the quadratic equation : zn+1=z2n+c with z0=0 Thus z1=c, z2=c2+c, z3=(c+c2)2+c where c is a selected fixed point in the xy plane representing the complex number c=a+bi. There are two possibilities for the orbit : (i) orbit will escape to infinity (ii) orbit will not escape to infinity

CONSTRUCTION
If any iteration of the orbit has a magnitude less than 2 i.e, |z|<2 then the orbit does not escapes to infinity and then we colour the point c as black otherwise with any other colour. So in order to construct a computer image of this set , the viewing window in xy plane of computer is divided into a rectangular array of pixels. Hence the z iteration is carried out separately for each c point which is the center of one of these pixels.

APPLICATIONS
TELECOMMUNICATION - FRACTAL ANTENNA The highly convoluted shape of the fractals makes possible the reduction in size and consequently in mass and volume of antennas. It is also capable of operating with good-toexcellent performance at many different frequencies simultaneously and here it has an edge over the traditional antenna designs. They are mechanically simpler and robust due to their geometry.

APPLICATIONS
The compact size of these antennas make possible to combine multimedia, communication and teledetection functionalities in a reduced space like a cell phone, a wristwatch or a credit card. Also a fractal antenna can provide GPS (Global Positioning System) services within a conventional mobile cellular phone.

APPLICATIONS
These designs have wide use in military sector . The fractal antennas overcome the problems faced by the usual military oriented antennas of big size, narrowband and their large requirement These antennas are also used to make body worn antennas that have the fewest compromises and work best for the terrestrial and satellite communication applications.

APPLICATIONS
COMPUTER SCIENCE The most useful use of fractals in computer science is the fractal image compression. Fractal algorithms to compress computer graphics file to less than a quarter of their original size. Storing images in less memory leads to reduction in storage costs and faster data transmissions. When the picture is enlarged, there is no pixelisation.

ORIGINAL 184,320 bytes

JPEG FORMAT 32,072 bytes

FRACTAL IMAGE 30,368 bytes

APPLICATIONS
The fractals were also used in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, to generate the landscape of the Genesis planet and also in Return of the Jedi to create the geography of the moons of Endor and the Death Star outline.

APPLICATIONS
MUSIC One of the very interesting applications of fractals is in the generation of sound patterns. Today, there are a lot of fractal music softwares that allows you to play several patterns at the same time and choose different instruments. One can, for example, make some instruments play a nonrepeating pattern and the other ones repeat a series of repeating notes.