![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Every day at a few minutes past midnight
(local
Wisconsin time), a new fractal
is automatically generated by a variation of the program
included with the book Strange Attractors:
Creating
Patterns in Chaos by Julien C. Sprott.
The figure above is today's fractal displayed in low (320 x 200)
resolution.
Click on it or on any of the cases below to see them at higher (640 x
480)
resolution with a code that identifies them according to a scheme
described
in the book. Older Fractals of the Day are saved in an archive. If your browser supports Java,
you might enjoy
the
applet
that creates a new fractal image every five seconds or so. If you would
like to place the Fractal of the Day on your Web page, you may do so
provided
you mention that it is from Sprott's Fractal Gallery and provide a
link back to this page. If you want to make your own
fractals, I recommend the Chaoscope
freeware.
![]() |
The following rather standard fractals are
low-resolution sample screen captures from the Chaos
Demonstrations program by J. C. Sprott
and G.
Rowlands.
You may also want to view an index of
these
and many other screen captures from the program.
)![]() |
The following fractals are low-resolution
sample
color plates from the book Strange Attractors:
Creating
Patterns in Chaos by Julien C. Sprott.
You may also want to view an
index of
all 371 figures from the book.
)
)
)
)![]() |
The following 3-dimensional strange
attractors
are mostly from the book Strange Attractors:
Creating
Patterns in Chaos by Julien C. Sprott
but are here rendered in higher (800 x 600) resolution with the third
dimension
mapped to a palette of 256 colors. Additional such cases can be
produced
automatically by the program sa256.exe
that searches for chaotic solutions of a general system of quadratic
maps
with 30 coefficients.
![]() |
The following fractals are standard Julia
sets
of the function z^2 + c. They were produced
automatically
by the program julia256.exe
by J. C. Sprott that searches the complex-c
plane for interesting cases. The names consist of two four-digit
hexadecimal
numbers p and q such that c is given by c
=
-2 + p / 21845 + i q / 43691. The plots cover the range z
= (-0.02, 0.02) + (-0.02, 0.02) i.
![]() |
The following fractals are generalized Julia
sets of 2-D quadratic maps with twelve coefficients. They were produced
automatically by the program genjulia.exe
by J. C. Sprott that searches the
12-dimensional
space of coefficients for interesting cases. The technique is described
in a paper "Automatic Generation of
General
Quadratic Map Basins" by J. C. Sprott and
C.
A. Pickover. The coefficients are coded into the names according to
a scheme described in the book Strange Attractors:
Creating Patterns in Chaos. The plots cover the range -1 < x
< 1 and -1 < y < 1. A few
additional images of this type produced with the program Fractal
eXtreme by Cygnus Software are available.
![]() |
The following fractals are iterated function
systems generated by the random iteration algorithm using two linear
affine
transformations. Color is introduced according to the number of
successive
applications of each transform. They were produced automatically by the
programifs256.exe
by J. C. Sprott that searches the
12-dimensional
space of coefficients for interesting cases. The coefficients are coded
into the names according to a scheme described in the paper "Automatic
Generation of Iterated Function Systems".
![]() |
The following icons are produced from 3-D
strange
attractors by mapping the x-coordinate to radius and the y-coordinate
to angle and replicating the pattern with different orientations. The z-coordinate
is represented by one of 256 colors, and a shadow is added to enhance
the
illusion of depth. The technique is described in a paper "Strange
Attractor Symmetric Icons" by
J. C. Sprott.
The equations used are coded into the name according to a scheme
described
in the book Strange Attractors: Creating Patterns
in
Chaos by
Julien C. Sprott. Additional
such cases can be produced automatically by the programicon256.exe.
If you like these, you can view an index
of 100 additional such examples, or an
index
of cyclic symmetric attractor anaglyphs produced by a different method.
You can also view an
index of fractal tilings
useful as Windows wallpaper or HTML backgrounds (as
on this page).
![]() |
You might also like to look at an index
of many thousands of fractals I've collected off the net, mostly from
the
newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.fractals
and from the World Wide Web. In most cases, I don't know the original
source,
and so I apologize to anyone whose copyright may have been violated.
Many
of the nicest of these images are the work of Paul Carlson whose Fractal Gallery and Fractal Museum you
may wish
to visit. Here's a few cases I've selected as the best of the best:
![]() |
These images are from the iterated mapping
xnew
= a + bx + cx2 + dy + ez
+ f sin(pi t/8), ynew = x,
znew = y,
where a through f are constants coded into the file
name
as described above. If your browser supports animated GIFs, you will
see
16 looping frames (t mod 16). These images illustrate the
stretching
that causes chaos and the folding that produces the fractal
microstructure
of strange attractors. The DOS
programs
that were used to produce them are available. The individual frames
were
assembled using the
GIF
Construction Set by Alchemy
Mindworks Inc. You might also like to look at an
index
of other fractal GIF animations, which includes 19 of the simplest
known chaotic flows.
![]() |
These images are real-world fractals
photographed
by J. C. Sprott using a Sony
Mavica MVC-FD7 Digital Camera. More images of this type can be
found
in the index of natural fractals.
![]() |
These very high resolution (4400 x 3200)
strange attractors (c) by J. C. Sprott are
included for anyone
who would like to make publication quality prints or display art. You
may publish
or display them without further permission provided you acknowledge
their source.
Thousands more like these are available upon request. See also the high-resolution images from the CD-ROM that
accompanies the book "Images of a Complex World: The
Art and Poetry of Chaos" and the strange
attractor prints offered for sale.
The
Infinite Fractal Loop:
HELP
|
NEXT
5 |
RANDOM
|
SKIP
1
Statistics
I hope you'll visit my home page and leave a comment.
Total accesses: