FOTD -- August 09, 2012 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image is named "Zexpe All The Way". The word 'zexpe' stands for 'Z with an exponent of epsilon'. Epsilon is the number 2.718..., which happens to be the exponent of Z in today's image. The parent fractal is the Zexpe fractal, which is created by the formula Z^(e)+C and has been studied by Lee Skinner. This parent fractal appears much as the cubic Mandelbrot set, but with the two large north and south buds skewed to the west. The fractal is most interesting along the negative X-axis, on the west side of the main two-lobed bay, which just happens to be where today's image lies. Since the exponent of Z is a fractional number, the image must contain discontinuities. In today's image however, they are not too annoying. The most obvious extends from the minibrot to the right edge of the frame. The sequence of elements surrounding the central minibrot in the image is 2.718...7.388...20.079,... though with the discontinui- ties breaking up the count, it is hard to find an easy-to-count example of this series. The rating of a 7 is average, since I consider the image to be of about average quality. The calculation time of 30 seconds is unusually fast, taking most of the effort out of the calculation task. Save the hassle of setting up and running the included parameter file by viewing the finished image on the official FOTD web site at: <http://www.crosscanpuzzles.com/Archives.html> A high-definition rendering is available at: <http://www.emarketingiseasy.com/TESTS/FOTD/jim_muths_fotd.html> The FOTD back images are online at: <http://www.Nahee.com/FOTD/> Typical midsummer weather prevailed today here at Fractal Central, with hazy sunshine, increased humidity and a tempera- ture of 90F 32C. These conditions pleased the fractal cats, who were unusually lively until they ran out of steam in the after- noon. The humans simply had another routine day. (Actual facts are sometimes boring.) The next FOTD is scheduled to be posted in 24 hours, and for all I know it might make it. Until whenever, take care, and on a certain science show Wednes- day evening, the topic was "did we invent God?" Since the show promotes the scientific view, the answer was obviously going to be "yes" -- men invented God in an attempt to bring meaning to the apparently random events of their lives. Actually, I was rather disappointed. Most of the show featured various psychological tests showing how man's brain is wired to believe in the supernatural, though at the end it did throw a bone of consolation to the believers. I doubt that the show changed anyone's beliefs however. Athe- ists already know that 'God' is only a comforting superstition, while believers, who experience God in their lives every day, already know that He does exist. My thoughts were concerned with how strange it is that science, which has almost reached the status of a religion, can with only minor hesitation accept facts as counter-intuitive as those of relativity and the quantum world, yet has such difficulty accepting that a field of consciousness, which some would call God, might pervade the universe. Of course, if we accepted this, we would then need to build a super-ultra-hyper supercol- lider to find the 'consciousness particle'. Jim Muth jimmuth@earthlink.net START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Zexpe_All_The_Way { ; time=0:00:30.00 SF5 at 2000MHZ reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=slices.frm formulaname=MandelbrotN center-mag=-0.690401003679\ 1892/+0.00013911065595364/2.785348e+011/1/45/0 params=2.71828182845905/0/0/0/0/0 float=y inside=0 maxiter=1500 bailout=6 logmap=85 periodicity=10 colors=00000H00C0070020001G77OGDYNJeVOjaVoearhjwlq\ zpxzs_clC0zD0UY1Np3HwYdzzzxhwsTskPhcNZWKORNVOOaJQh\ GqzCgz9Wa6ZV3UP0cI0eA0f58_2LT0ZN0kG0x90k50Z00zU0z1\ 7H6KE9YCEj9IwCEfDCQE995ZL0wY6oUEgRN`PWTNdLKlEIlHLl\ JPlLRlOVlQYhPVePTaPQ_POWOLTOJPOHNOETPGYQGaQGfRGkRG\ YJNJAU63_56d58h3Am3Dq2Gv2Iz2KzDJwOJqZIkhIdsHZzHToH\ I`H8VNHPRPKWYHVTEVPAUL8UI5UE2TA0T70T3GO2ZK1pH1w0Wd\ VoLzzzlzlqkYvTIyAQoCZdCfUCoJCv9CUQ32f06g38eCCeJEeR\ He_KefNeoPevAeu0es0ek0ec0eWCeUOeT_eRkeQgekdezheole\ ZpeJreTse`uehveqweyqe0oe6meCkeIjeOgeUmq_mqemqkmqmm\ qpmqqmqsmqvmqwmqymqzmqxmqwmqmmqerqYzzPzzHzzRzz`zzj\ zzszzzzzzzzyzzxzz2zzDzzIzzLzzQzzUuzYuzTuzPuzKuzHuz\ Duz8uz5uz1zzOzzhzzzyzHlzL`zPPzUDzY1z`6zYAzVEzTJzQO\ zNRzKWzI_zG`zVazjkzauzUzzNzzVzzazzjzzqzzxszslzofzk\ _zfTzaNzZGzU9zQ7zW5z`3zf1zk0zp0zv0zz0zz0zx3zr7zlCz\ eGz_KzUOzOPzNQzL8zP0zQ0zL } frm:MandelbrotN {; Jim Muth b=p1, z=p2, c=p3+pixel: z=z^(b)+c, |z| <= 16 } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================