FOTD -- March 14, 2008 (Rating 7.5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: The March issue of 'Sci-Am' magazine has an article about the expanding universe that I found interesting. It appears that in the unimaginably distant future the universe will have expanded until all the galaxies except those of the local cluster will have receded beyond the event horizon. And also by that time, all the galaxies in the local cluster will have condensed into a single giant elliptical galaxy, consisting of very slowly dying red-dwarf stars. The most distant objects visible will be dim red stars perhaps 200,000 light-years distant, and all evidence of the expansion of the universe and therefore of the 'big-bang' that we presently assume created the universe will have vanished. If any astronomers still exist in that remote future time, the thought of an explosive 'big-bang' origin of the universe would never have entered their minds. They would have no clues as to how the 'universe', which by then would be a single elliptical galaxy filled with small dying red stars, came into existence. Most likely the astronomers of the year 10-trillion would invent ingenious scientific theories that would appear logical to them, but would seem ludicrous to us with our present broader view. Of course, when we consider our current 'big bang' hypothesis, we are in the same situation as those distant future astronomers would be. We have no idea of what might have caused the assumed 'big bang' that created the universe. The simplest way out is to brush the problem aside by claiming that time as we know it did not exist before the 'big bang'. If we assume this, we can then claim that it is meaningless to ask what happened 'before' the 'big bang'. But this is really spinning our way out of the problem. As I said a week or two ago, we don't even know what we don't know, and this is especially true of me. I do know something about today's image however. It exists in the same parent fractal as the past 3 days' images, and lies just beyond the edge of the 'fan'. The name "Arc of Evaporation" describes the prominent dividing line that runs diagonally through the image and separates the 'evaporated' from the 'unevaporated' parts of the scene. This apparently straight line is actually an arc of a circle that is centered at the origin of the parent fractal. The line appears straight because only a tiny part of the whole circle is visi- ble. The evaporation is spreading from the lower left toward the upper right, and is controlled by changing the escape radius, which is set by the imag(p3) parameter. To add a bit of spice, I rendered the scene with the inside set to 'atan', though a couple of the other inside fills also do a good job. After careful study, I rated the image at a 7-1/2. The calcula- tion time of under 1-1/2 minutes is speedy enough for all but the most restless fractalists. And as always, the finished image can be seen on the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> An enjoyable end-of-winter day prevailed here at Fractal Central on Thursday, with sunny skies and a temperature of 54F 12C. The cats of F.C. were more concerned with the local pigeons than the generous sun. My day was as close to normal as days get. With any luck at all, tomorrow will be the same. The next FOTD fractal will appear in 24 hours or so. Until then, take care, and time will never come to a complete halt, but it will never stop slowing down either. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Arc_of_Evaporation { ; time=0:01:24.43-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+5.507580654866794/-0.4053643733147778/\ 2809.232/1/35/2.96780140046637442e-009 params=-5/-1.15/-0.75/-7.5/0/76235000000.0/0/0 float=y maxiter=800 inside=atan periodicity=10 colors=000d0aa0dZ0hW0iT0mQ0zN0zL0zI0zG0zD0zA0z70z4\ 0z20z00z00z04z0Bz0Iz0Oz0Wz0cz0kz0sz0zz0zz0zz0zz0zz\ 0zz0zz0zz0zx0zv0zt0zq0zo1zl2zk4zh6zf7zd9zf9zf9xf9v\ f9sfAofAlfAkfAhfAdfBafB`fBYfBVfBTfAQ`9OW7NR6LN4KI2\ ID1H90G40E00D00E00E00G01G01H01H01H02I02I02K04K04L0\ 4L04L09O0DQ1HT2KV4OY6TZ9YaA`cBdfDihEnkHqqIvxKzzczz\ NzzuzzKzzHztDylAvd6tY2qQ0oI0nB0o60q00s00v00u02u04z\ Q6zQ7zQAu0Bv0Dw0Ew0Dw0Bt0Bs0Aq0An09l07i07h06f06k49\ nGBqQDtaGxlHzyKzzLHWWDY`AZd7`h4al1cq0dt0fy0fz0`x7V\ tDQqKKlQGiYAfc6ak0Zq0Wi0`a0cW0hO0kH0oB0sG0qK0qN6oR\ AoVGnZLnaRlfWliaknhkqlktkaxiTyhKzfBzd2zc0zOLzAlz0z\ lHkTcKGiN2nO0sQ0oT0lW0kY0h`0da0cd0`f0Yi1Wk2Tn2Ro1T\ f1VZ1VR1WI1WB1Y41Y09Q9GKKNEWV9ha2sWAoQHlKOkEWh9af9\ af9af9`f9`d9`d9`d9`d9`d9`c9Zc9Zc9Zc9Za9Za9Za9Za9Ya\ 9Y`9Y`9Y`9Y`9YZ9YZ9WZ9WZ9WY9WY9WY9WY9VY9VW9VW9VW9V\ W9VV9VV9TV9TVz0Tt0Vo0Yi0` } frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; 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)+(p4)), k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================