FOTD -- April 26, 2004 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image lies in an immense parent fractal that is too large to display in its entirety, and in fact might be infinite in its large as well as its small aspect. This huge parent was created by combining Z^(-1.25) with 0.24 as much Z^(-5.21) and adding (1/C). The location of today's scene at -11519.6 on the X-axis and -6756.86 on the Y-axis shows that we have wandered far from the familiar home grounds around the origin of the parent, into the dark mysterious outer reaches of Fractal Land, beyond which lies the unknown. Even way out here, we find the same scattering of midget copies of the Mandelbrot set. Apparently, Fractal Land is like the Physical Universe -- the general laws are the same in all its parts, no matter how distant those parts might be. This does not mean that the laws of Fractal Land are the same as the laws of the universe. There is no cosmic speed limit that corre- sponds to the velocity of light -- at least none that I am aware of. But there does appear to be something similar to gravity, which appears when two midgets approach to within a certain distance, and can be visibly seen stretching toward each other. Fractal Land is eternal. It does not change with time unless we ourselves make a series of separate images and join them into a single animation. But even here, it is we who have created the illusion of motion by joining in our minds a series of separate images into a single moving object. The situation is similar with the physical universe. We are told that there exists in physical reality a shortest possible length of time known as the Planck time, which is 10^-43 of a second. If this is true, then all the motion we think we see around us is an illusion of our own creation. Nothing is moving, we are merely observing a sequential series of eternally frozen three-dimensional universes and merging them in our minds into a single dynamic three-dimensional universe that changes in a time that we ourselves are creating. Our intellect has reached a stage where we are beginning to recognize the illusory nature of what we have long taken as the one external reality. Objective and subjective are no longer absolute. It appears that once we develop the long-sought-for 'theory of everything', the question will then become 'what is having the illusion?' And I would not be at all surprised if we were to discover that the universe, and ourselves as well, are merely intricately detailed fractals. Well, I appear to have gotten distracted from the business at hand, which is the FOTD. I have named the image "Sir Fractal" because in my opinion it has a certain solidness about it -- a nobility that would be expected of knights. I rated the image at a 7. This is an improvement over the recent images, which have not been the greatest. Combined with the render time of 6-1/2 minutes, the overall value rates a 107. Those who lack the time to render the image from the included parameter file may download the completed image from the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> Sunday remained cloudy and chilly here at Fractal Central, with a temperature that never rose above 64F 18C. Luckily the rain held off and the cats had a pleasant but slightly cool afternoon in the yard. But this morning is proving damp and foggy, with occasional light rain. It remains to be seen how the dynamic duo will react. What I'm going to do is the work that needs to be done. And when I finish, I'll take a trip to Fractal Land to worry about that great illusion. What I find there will appear as the next FOTD. So until tomorrow, take care, and see you soon. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Sir_Fractal { ; time=0:06:32.66--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-11519.6/-6756.86/0.02217445/1/-12.5/\ 4.329384e-013 params=1/-1.25/0.24/-5.21/0/0 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=0 logmap=106 periodicity=0 colors=000ZZF__G``HaaIbbJccLddMeeNffOggPhhQiiSjjTk\ kUllVmmWnnXooVppUqqSqrRqsPqsOqsMqsLqsJqsIqsHqrFqrE\ qrCqrBqp9qn8ql6rj5rh3rf2rd1sb2t`2uZ3wX3xU4yP4zK4wF\ 3t93qA3nA3kB2hC2fC2cD2`E2YE1VF1SG1QG1NH1KI0HI0EJ0B\ K09K0EP7JUEOYLTbSXfZShUOjPKlKGmGKfJN`MQVPTPSWJVZDY\ a7``6d_6gZ5jY5mX5qW4tV4wV4zT6xS7vQ8tP9rNAqMBoLCmJD\ kIEjGFhFGfEHdCIcBJa9K_8LY7MX9NWANVBNUCNTEOSFORGOQH\ OPHSNHVLHYJH`HHcFHfDHiBHl9Ho7Hr5Hu3Hx2Ju3Ks4Lp5Mn6\ Ok7Pi7Qf8Rd9TaAU_BVXBWVCYSDZQE_NF`LFbIGcGHdDIeBJf9\ Je9Jd9Jc9Jb9J`9J_9JZAIYAIXAIVAIUAITAISAIRAIOFGLJFI\ NEGSDDWCA_A8d95h82l70p68pEGpMOpUWpabpidmgekeficgga\ _h`Sh_LiZDiY6iXBeUFbSK_QOXNTULXQJaNHeKEjHCnEArB8tX\ 6uV9vTCwRFxPIyNKzLNzJQzHTzFWzDYzB`z9cz7fz5hzUnzUoz\ UozUqzUszUuzWwzUxzWyzYzz_zzazzczzczzczzczzczzczzcz\ zczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzc\ zzczzczzczzczzczzczzczzcz } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; Jim Muth a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(-a*b*g*h)^j, k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================