Geeky Math Equation Creates Beautiful 3-D World

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/mandelbulb-gallery/all/1

by Evgeny • 17 years ago

50 16 17 years ago

wired.com

jacquesm• 17 years ago

This was posted 3 times in the last 30 days.

Evgeny• 17 years ago

I did the search, I swear ... http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=ge...

ars• 17 years ago

Dedicated Hacker News search engine: http://searchyc.com/ works much better than google for this site.

forinti• 17 years ago

It's a fractal post; it repeats itself endlessly.

forensic• 17 years ago

I'm a computer nerd, so I don't say this often:

These pictures are breathtaking. They remind me of gothic cathedrals, but more stimulating, deeper, and even more beautiful. Knowing they are mathematically generated gives me a feeling not unlike ecstasy.

RevRal2• 17 years ago

The response I'm accustomed to seeing, when people are introduced to these such things, is normally closer to horror.

What was your first reaction to seeing the Mandelbrot? Seeing this "geek world" induces a similar, though less severe, dread for me.

aerique2• 17 years ago

It's been a very long time ago since I first saw a mandelbrot but it must've been something like "cool / whatever" and only after learning more about it I started to appreciate it.

Seeing the Mandelbulb pages a couple of months ago through HN I was really in awe and also found it very inspiring since it pertains to some of my pet projects.

Is it possible for you to explain why it induces you with dread? I really can't understand that.

arketyp• 17 years ago

This 3D creation is impressive, but the original Mandelbrot set has far deeper impact on me [not parent poster]. Since I was a kid I've been fascinated by these forms; by the infinite intricacy, the simultaneous multilevel self-similarity -- it just sucks you in. It's beautiful but also at times I can feel it to be sickening and horrifying, like a poison. I can't help feeling there is some kind of essential life force in such constructions, in the spaces between order and randomness. It also reminds me of the ideas I've read behind William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".

StatIDM• 17 years ago

The first time I discovered the Mandelbrot set was an incredibly emotive and beautiful experience. I immediately moved to Wikipedia to further research it, where I found out about the Julia fractal sets that can be formed from the same equation by seeding it with a specific complex number.

Then I found this image mapping Julia sets on the complex plane by their seed values.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:725_Julia_sets.png

I actually broke down and cried.

wlievens• 17 years ago

I's say it's the kind of unconventional beauty you also see in Gaudi's architecture.

StrawberryFrog• 17 years ago

Geeky may be a redundant word there - How many world-creating math equations are there that aren't geeky?

wendroid• 17 years ago

Not only that but it is demeaning.

bitwize• 17 years ago

It makes me hungry for fractal broccoli...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesco_broccoli

Geeky Math Equation Creates Beautiful 3-D World

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