Monday, November 10, 2008

Debbie New's fractals

In her book Unexpected Knitting, Debbie New goes on and on about fractals, which I, in my barely passed algebra state, have difficulty understanding.

Wikipedia defines fractals as a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole, property called self-similarity.  

This is an easier explanation:


Italian or Romanesco Broccoli.  Also called Broccoflower, it is known for logarithmic spirals.

5 comments:

Suzann said...

I love that book. But my brain is too small for Debbie New's patterns. I barely passed algebra either :-}

Anonymous said...

Bets, you GOT fractals!!!

Marta

Enid said...

That broccoli is so cool. We tried growing that kind and for some reason it didn't do well.

Here is a fractal generator.

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractals/fractalgenerators/generator1/index.html

smariek said...

No clue who this Debbie is. Whenever I hear the word "fractals", I can't help but think of that *#&@%!$ computer grahpics class I took in college.

What, no broccoli recipes?

Cindy G said...

I got all excited when I saw that title, because I love (1000) that book.

But the real reason I dropped in today (Nov 11) was to say "Thank you, Bets, for your service to our country." That's all. Just "Thank you".