MHB Is a fractal always a predictable pattern?

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Fractals are structures that exhibit self-similarity at any scale, but they can also be non-deterministic and complex, as seen in coastlines and CGI landscapes. The Mandelbrot fractal, for example, reveals increasingly intricate patterns upon zooming in, yet maintains a core of symmetry without repeating exactly. While fractals are defined by their self-similarity, they can still display rich and varied features. The discussion highlights that a fractal's Hausdorff dimension can exceed its topological dimension, emphasizing its complexity. Ultimately, fractals can be both predictable in their self-similarity and unpredictable in their detailed structures.
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It never goes crazy and starts doing it's own unpredictable number pattern or sequence, right? Thanks in advance.
 
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OMGMathPLS said:
It never goes crazy and starts doing it's own unpredictable number pattern or sequence, right? Thanks in advance.

Coastlines are often considered fractal, in fact they are one of the earliest known structures to be considered fractal and they are not deterministic. Same with fractal landscaped used in CGI (pseudo-non-deterministic).

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zzephod said:
Coastlines are often considered fractal, in fact they are one of the earliest known structures to be considered fractal and they are not deterministic. Same with fractal landscaped used in CGI (pseudo-non-deterministic).

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Can a fractal be irrational and non repeating?
 
OMGMathPLS said:
Can a fractal be irrational and non repeating?

Strictly speaking a fractal is any structure which exhibits self-similarly at any scale. So in some sense it kind of has to have a periodic component. But it can still be quite rich in features. For instance, take a look at the Mandelbrot fractal, if you zoom in on it at various levels of detail you tend to see more and more elaborate patterns, but ultimately they are just the same few types of symmetry repeated over and over again in slightly different ways.
 
Bacterius said:
For instance, take a look at the Mandelbrot fractal, if you zoom in on it at various levels of detail you tend to see more and more elaborate patterns, but ultimately they are just the same few types of symmetry repeated over and over again in slightly different ways.

Interestingly, I believe that the Mandelbrot fractal does not repeat.
Except for its symmetry, its shape is really different everywhere.
It's kind of fun to zoom in somewhere, and discover that it does not show the repeatable pattern that you would sort of expect.
 
Bacterius said:
Strictly speaking a fractal is any structure which exhibits self-similarly at any scale. So in some sense it kind of has to have a periodic component. But it can still be quite rich in features. For instance, take a look at the Mandelbrot fractal, if you zoom in on it at various levels of detail you tend to see more and more elaborate patterns, but ultimately they are just the same few types of symmetry repeated over and over again in slightly different ways.

Fractal is a structure where its Hausdorff dimension (strictly) exceeds its topological dimension.

See here

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Seemingly by some mathematical coincidence, a hexagon of sides 2,2,7,7, 11, and 11 can be inscribed in a circle of radius 7. The other day I saw a math problem on line, which they said came from a Polish Olympiad, where you compute the length x of the 3rd side which is the same as the radius, so that the sides of length 2,x, and 11 are inscribed on the arc of a semi-circle. The law of cosines applied twice gives the answer for x of exactly 7, but the arithmetic is so complex that the...

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