----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Muth" <jamth@mindspring.com> To: <fractint@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: <philofractal@lists.fractalus.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 9:05 AM Subject: [Fractint] FOTD 03-09-03 (Spiral [3]) <snip>
Having no time to find a new fractal, I turned to one I generated yesterday, when I saw a message on the Fractint list that 7-armed spirals are a rarity in fractals. I had not realized that such spirals were rare, and to see if this were so, I went to a period-7 bud of the Mandelbrot set and drew the Julia set of that area. Then, for a bit of added interest, I double rotated the image 0.1 degree from the julia direction and got my 7-armed spiral, with a vague hint of Mandelbrot buds in the background.
Hey, I didn't *state* that 7-armed spirals were rare! I *asked* if this were so. Since you were able to produce one on demand, I guess the answer is that they are *not* rare. My 7up, however is a much nicer spiral, with another somewhat intriguing feature...I thought. If I back away some distance from my screen, I see that the sub-elements of the slowly spiralling arms form another spiral...a much faster spiral, (shorter pitch). Something that was discussed in Philofractal back in May and June...I have been surprised by the lack of comment in "Scientific American" regarding the multiple universe article by Max Tegmark. Well a few letters have finally surfaced. It was my own belief that this whole thing was built upon flawed reasoning which led to paradox. One reader pointed out an omission in the boundless possibilities suggested by Tegmark...a theism. I guess that this reader is thinking along the same lines that I followed; "Space appears to be infinite in size. If so, then somewhere out there, everything possible becomes real, no matter how improbable it is". Therefore there's a universe somewhere which is built and managed by "God". John W.