Fractal Art and the Beauty of Maths: The Non-geek Guide
A fractal is a rough geometric shape which can be split into parts. Each part is said to be an approximate reduced-size copy of the whole. What does this have to do with art? Well, everything, by the look of these pictures.
Many artists and mathematicians are now using these self-similarity fractions to make beautiful, eye-opening art. This is not just for the geek who understands the recursive definitions and equations that are required to transform these irregular patterns into stunning pieces, but for all of us who have an appreciation for true, abstract beauty – fragmented or not.
Here are some wonderful fractal art pieces I’ve found.
image source for pictures 1 to 4
image source for pictures 5 and 6
image source for pictures 7 to 9
image source for pictures 10 and 11
And while we’re at it, here’s some amazing symmetry, even if you didn’t like numbers.
1* 8 + 1 = 9
12 * 8 +2 = 98
123 * 8 + 3 = 987
1234 * 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 * 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 * 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 * 8 + 7 = 9875643
12345678 * 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 * 8 + 9 = 987654321
1 * 1 = 1
11 * 11 = 121
111 * 111 = 12321
1111 * 1111 = 1234321
11111 * 11111 = 123454321
111111 * 11111 = 12345654321
1111111 * 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 * 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 * 11111111 = 12345678987654321
9 * 9 + 7 = 88
98 * 9 + 6 = 888
987 * 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 * 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 * 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 * 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 * 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 * 9 + 0 + 888888888
1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111
I think that we can all agree, whether Maths geniuses or not, that Science and Maths have got general appeal after all.
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30 Responses to “Fractal Art and the Beauty of Maths: The Non-geek Guide”
On November 27, 2008 at 5:02 am
With the aid of mathematics, natural laws are objectively understood that many people such as Spinoza and Einstein equated the mathematical predictability of nature to God. Very nice article anne, the patterns are just too beautiful.
On November 27, 2008 at 5:58 am
Imagine that! Beautiful art patterns!
On November 27, 2008 at 6:07 am
amazing semmetry indeed
On November 27, 2008 at 8:23 am
nice art..
On November 27, 2008 at 9:07 am
Nice work and beautiful photograhs.
On November 27, 2008 at 9:14 am
Clever stuff Anne.
On November 27, 2008 at 10:33 am
Fantastic art!
On November 27, 2008 at 11:13 am
I loved the pictures you can keep the numbers, LOL, great article.
On November 27, 2008 at 11:48 am
I had a college professor who actually loved algebra, so he is going to get a copy of this. I know he’d understand it. I just like it because of it’s aesthetic beauty. I’m not as brainy as he is.
Thanks, Anne, for sharing & God bless you and yours.
On November 27, 2008 at 12:11 pm
those equation things at the bottom are so cool
nice job on this article
On November 27, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Amazing and so interesting. I have heard about the equations before but the Fractual Art is a new on to me and so beautiful.
On November 27, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Just amazing!
On November 28, 2008 at 5:34 am
Awesome pics and very interesting piece.
On November 28, 2008 at 9:10 am
this is simply amazing,nice job Anne
On November 28, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Excellet article
On November 29, 2008 at 3:54 am
Thanks for the supportive comments, everyone. Much appreciated.
On November 29, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Great work! Going to have to blog this!
On November 29, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Love the pictures and I love messing about with numbers
On December 2, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Okay, I know how to post comments now. I like your article.
On December 3, 2008 at 5:31 am
great article, Beautiful pic’s.
On December 8, 2008 at 6:01 am
A nice short introduction to the topic, but image 7 is a photograph of a real vegetable (naturally occurring, so I wouldn’t call it art) while all the others are computer generated images.
On December 12, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Hi, Anne, how are you?
These are some nice fractals, and I like the numbers tables, they’re cool. Thanks for sharing.
On December 17, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I love the beautiful designs and colors.designs, Very nice.
On January 12, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Nicely done, Anne,
A well written and accessible article.
I love fractals and use them in my art quite frequently.
The number patterns you show us here are fascinating.
On January 12, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I came back to see this again. I’m not much at math but it is fascinating and the pictures are beautiful.
On February 24, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I sigh becuase this reminds of a class I took in college, Math for non-Math majors…and we studied these sorts of things. It really is breathtaking to understand the sorts of connections that can be made using mathematics and other various aspects of our society. Here you have done a great job of laying out the fruits of those sorts of labors…math can equal beauty.
On February 26, 2009 at 10:19 am
nice pictures! I have personal experience creating fractals. What I can say is that they took lots of computer time to generate, but the result is just amazing.
Interestingly if you work with really complex math, you may accidentally found some kind of fractal. This one already happened to me.
On March 15, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Very good article, interesting and nice photographs.
On April 4, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Check out some of the fractals on my gallery at: http://rosshilbert.deviantart.com/gallery/ for some unusual fractals.
On April 19, 2009 at 9:25 am
Very interesting, I had heard about this before and you made it clear for me.
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