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    Exploring Fractals in Nature Puente

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    Louis Puente
    This document discusses fractal patterns found in nature. It provides examples of fractals such as the Koch snowflake, Romanesco broccoli, Barnsley fern, fractal trees, fractal landscapes, and fractal architecture. Fractals are patterns that repeat themselves infinitely within themselves on decreasing scales. Many natural phenomena such as trees, ferns, coastlines, and broccoli heads exhibit fractal-like properties through repeated self-similar patterns.

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    Exploring Fractals in Nature Puente

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    Louis Puente
    62 views3 pages
    This document discusses fractal patterns found in nature. It provides examples of fractals such as the Koch snowflake, Romanesco broccoli, Barnsley fern, fractal trees, fractal landscapes, and fractal architecture. Fractals are patterns that repeat themselves infinitely within themselves on decreasing scales. Many natural phenomena such as trees, ferns, coastlines, and broccoli heads exhibit fractal-like properties through repeated self-similar patterns.

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    This document discusses fractal patterns found in nature. It provides examples of fractals such as the Koch snowflake, Romanesco broccoli, Barnsley fern, fractal trees, fractal landscapes, and fractal architecture. Fractals are patterns that repeat themselves infinitely within themselves on decreasing scales. Many natural phenomena such as trees, ferns, coastlines, and broccoli heads exhibit fractal-like properties through repeated self-similar patterns.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    62 views3 pages

    Exploring Fractals in Nature Puente

    Uploaded by

    Louis Puente
    This document discusses fractal patterns found in nature. It provides examples of fractals such as the Koch snowflake, Romanesco broccoli, Barnsley fern, fractal trees, fractal landscapes, and fractal architecture. Fractals are patterns that repeat themselves infinitely within themselves on decreasing scales. Many natural phenomena such as trees, ferns, coastlines, and broccoli heads exhibit fractal-like properties through repeated self-similar patterns.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    Exploring fractal patterns in nature

    Luis Germán Puente1, a)


    1
    Yachay Tech University
    (Dated: 23 May 2019)
    In mathematics, a fractal is an abstract concept that is used to describe objects or phenomena which can be
    found in nature. Fractals are beautiful and simple equations that when plotted out as shapes form extremely
    complex structures, surely you have found some examples in nature. The plant kingdom is full of fractal pat-
    terns such as ferns and trees. The interactions of this equation are infinite, also fractal geometry is an infinite
    geometry. In this work we present some famous fractals and we describe an interesting dynamical process
    that, also, creates that pattern. It is possible to characterize fractals into different types, we shall see self-
    similar fractals and self-repeating fractals. Finally we show some examples about the practical implications
    of fractal architecture.

    I. INTRODUCTION The perimeter of the snowflake after n stages is:


    4n
    Fractal is a detailed pattern that repeats itself to in- P (n) = , (1)
    3n−1
    finity. The fractals in nature are approximate fractals,
    since them has a termination point, natural fractals such the perimeter of the figures above is P (0) = 3, P (1) = 4,
    as trees and ferns do not keep repeating their patterns P (2) = 16/3 and P (3) = 64/9, respectively. As n → ∞,
    forever. Fractals are fascinating, no matter which part of P (n) → ∞.
    the fractal you zoom in on, it will be an identical version
    of the bigger picture. Many objects in nature have been
    modeled mathematically by approximating the curves or B. The Fibonacci Word Fractal
    surfaces. However, the traditional calculus is not the
    best tool for their study. The study of such objects has The infinite Fibonacci word is a specific infinite sequence
    resulted in a new area of mathematics called Fractal Ge- in a two-letter alphabet2 . Let f1 be “1” and f2 be “0”.
    ometry 1 . Using fn = fn−1 fn−2 we get the six first successive Fi-
    bonacci words

    f1 :1
    II. FRACTALS IN NATURE f2 :0
    f3 : 01
    A. Koch Snowflake f4 : 010
    f5 : 01001
    A famous example of fractals is due to Helge von Koch f6 : 01001010
    (1904), who designed the Koch Snowflake. Starting with
    an equilateral triangle of side length 1 unit, three equilat- The infinite Fibonacci word is the limit f∞ . Romanesco
    eral triangle are constructed, as shown in Figure 1, each broccoli a fine work of art and a mathematical marvel.
    having side length 1/3. This construction is then contin- If breaks off a floret, it looks like a mini broccoli with its
    ued for each stage. we can continue indefinitely until nth own mini florets. Figure 2 shows the construction of the
    stage. The Koch Snowflake is a curve of infinite length. fractal curves in a broccoli.

    C. Barnsley fern

    This fractal system was first explored by Michael


    Barnsley in 1980s. He generated the fractal pattern
    that’s now known as Barnsley’s Fern. The Barnsley fern
    FIG. 1: The first iterations of the Koch Snowflake are is repeatedly transformed by using one of four transfor-
    illustrated mation functions. The formula for one transformation is
    the following

    f (x) = ax + cy + e
    f (y) = bx + dy + f
    a) Electronic mail: [email protected] where a, b, c, d, e and f are constants.
    2

    FIG. 4: A fern can be constructed by a pattern of


    identical shapes continuously placed on top of and next
    to each other.
    FIG. 2: Romanesco broccoli is a beautiful example of a
    Fibonacci fractal in the natural world
    a mountain landscape. Fractal geometry is a revolution
    in topological theory and provides the possibility of sim-
    ulating and describing landscapes precisely by using a
    mathematical model. Fractal analysis appears to cap-
    ture some new information that traditional parameters
    do not contain3 .
    The scaling factor at stage n is dn , given by
     n H2
    1
    dn = d (2)
    2

    where d is the scale factor for the heights and the value of
    H is used to define how smooth the resulting landscape.
    While H is small the surface is very rough; as H increases
    FIG. 3: A fern can be constructed by a pattern of the landscape becomes smoother.
    identical shapes continuously placed on top of and next
    to each other.

    D. Fractal Trees

    First of all, a tree is approximately self-similar, it is


    formed by repeating a simple process over and over again.
    That is, a small piece of the tree looks somewhat like
    an entire tree. Notice how the tree in Figure 4 has
    many branches connected at its end. Fractals are hyper-
    efficient and allow plants to maximize their exposure to
    sunlight, each one of those branches has many branches FIG. 5: Natural landscapes behave in a generally fractal
    at its end and those branches have more branches and so manner.
    on and so forth.

    E. Fractal landscape F. Fractal architecture

    The before examples are deterministic in that it al- Fractals have appeared regularly throughout the history
    ways looks the same no matter the interactions. We now of art and architecture, examples of fractals span across
    add some randomness to the process to be able to create many different cultures. The idea of creating fractal
    3

    calculated with the formula

    n = 3k − 1 (3)

    Where n is the number of triangles and k is the number


    of iterations.

    CONCLUSIONS

    In this work we have shown a partial description of


    sunspots. Fractals generate points to plot on a graph
    that are the result of iterated calculations and in contrast
    to naturally occurring fractals, mathematical fractals can
    possess an infinite range of scaling symmetry. . A char-
    acteristic of the fractals is that the pattern repeats itself
    in the smaller and smaller detail. In the calculation of
    fractals we can set an arbitrary level of detail by decid-
    ing on how many calculation iterations we use. Fractals
    FIG. 6: (a) The Eiffel Tower compared to (b) a are now, for example, used in many forms to create tex-
    Sierpinski Triangle tured landscapes and other complex models. Finally, we
    note that certain architects were inspired for creating a
    building based on fractals.
    buildings is challenging due to the repetition of the con- 1 Geoffrey R. Goodson. Lecture Notes on Dynamical Sys-
    struction process at different scales. A typical example tems,Chaos and Fractal Geometry. Towson University Mathe-
    is Eiffel Tower in Paris, where the repetition of a trian- matics Department, 1988.
    2 Alexis Monnerot Dumaine. The Fibonacci Word fractal. Hal
    gle generates a shape as a Sierpinski Gasket 4 (See Figure
    archives-ouvertes, 2009.
    6). Gustav Eiffel used practical implications of fractal 3 Ian D. Moore Tingbao Xu and John C. Gallant. Fractals, fractal
    architecture. If the tower had been designed as a solid dimensions and landscapes a review. Science Direct, 8:245–262,
    pyramid, it would have required a large amount of iron 1993.
    4 Peter H. Kahn, Elizabeth M. Lev, Sara Park Perrins, Thea Weiss,
    without significant added strength. The area of the Sier-
    Trecia Ehrlich, and Daniel Feinberg. Human-nature interaction
    pinski Triangle approaches 0.
    patterns: Constituents of a nature language for environmental
    The number of triangles in the Sierpinski triangle can be sustainability. page 123, 03 2018.

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