Thread: I don't know enough about Fractals (Question!)

Originally Posted by Abra

I'll try asking this one:

Fractals are the presence of repetition, but each copy is not an exact replica, just self-similar. Right?

Wrong. Many fractals, like IFS (iterated function systems), are constructed based on the precise idea that they contain exact copies of themselves. Example: seirpinski gasket click me

I think you're also very confused as to what the mathematical term "chaos" means. I won't give the exact definition, but chaos is a property of dynamical systems whereby the input values are 'mixing'; you can get arbitrarily large differences in outputs from arbitrarily small differences in inputs. A priori, this has NOTHING to do with fractals. The only connection between fractals and chaos is the fact that some dynamical systems are both fractal and chaotic, like Mandelbrot*.

*I actually mean the quadratic family of dynamic systems is chaotic, and by applying an escape algorithm on the complex plane, you can generate the Mandelbrot set, which is a fractal on the plane