FOTD -- October 24, 2004 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: The existence of Julia sets has been known for almost 100 years, though their exact appearance was not determined until modern computers were developed. And when computers finally opened the door to the world of fractals -- wow! were we surprised. The FOTD for today takes us on to the Julia version of the formula Z^2+C, a formula that draws perhaps the most basic and simplest of all fractals. This formula is so familiar and has been explored so thoroughly that it is a bit difficult to find anything new in it. But the fractals it produces are infinite in number, and infinity is inexhaustible. To find today's image, I chose a point in a basin of a midget deep in East Valley of the prominent midget on the negative X-axis of the Mandelbrot set, and checked its corresponding Julia set. The image I came up with is not excep- tional -- I have seen many similar images -- but it is different enough from what is normally pictured as a Julia set to qualify as the FOTD for today. I named the image "A Fractal Primeval". When I saw it, I was reminded of a scene deep in the primeval ocean of early earth, at a time when life had just evolved to the level of multicel- lular organisms. A few of these early creatures, if they can be considered creatures, are illustrated, complete with infinitely divided Cantor-style nuclei. I doubt that these early forms of life actually were colored the brilliant shade of red that I gave them, but the strong coloring is what raised the image to its rating of a 6. The rating of 6 might be a bit excessive for such an ordinary image. I feel the image is worth its rating however. And when the render time of under 10 seconds is figured in, the overall worth registers an amazing and grossly inflated 3681. The image may be seen by running the included parameter file and waiting a few seconds, or, if your computer is Fractint chal- lenged, by downloading the completed GIF image from the FOTD web site maintained by Paul Lee at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> A fine sunny day here at Fractal Central on Saturday was kept from being perfect by a slightly-too-chilly temperature of 55F 13C. The cats did not seem to mind however, and spent most of the afternoon in the yard, doing what fractal cats do best. They came in at sunset as soon as they heard the food being opened, and enjoyed a treat of turkey and tuna. Today is starting not so sunny, with sprinkles of rain already falling. The day could go any way at all, so check back in 24 hours to see how the cats make out. The next glorious (IMO) fractal will also be available right here at that time. Until then, take care, and what a lovely bunch of fractals fills the cosmos. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= A_Fractal_Primeval { ; time=0:00:09.78--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=julia center-mag=-0.00000692960822\ 208/+0.05602788817859143/1599.23/1/-60/-3.94004273\ 651660242e-013 params=-1.749708627366082/3.2897258\ 61169113e-007 float=y maxiter=900 bailout=9 inside=255 logmap=232 symmetry=none periodicity=10 colors=000AKKAKKAKKAKKAKKAKKAKKAKKAKKAKKAKKBKKCKKD\ KKEKKDJNCIOBHSAHUCMXERZGVaIZeJbhLflNjoPnsRqvTszVuz\ XvzZwz`xzbyzdzzcxzZwucuvZrrUjmQehQ_cQXZQWUQXPNZKL_\ IIaIGbHEcGBeG9fF7gFEfKKePQdUWcZbcchbhnamt`rz`vw`nu\ `fr`Zp`Rm`Jk`BjcAje9ig9ij8ik8hl7hm7hn6go6gp5gq5_p6\ `qAaqKbqUcqUdqUeoUfkUggUhcUi_PjWKmSFpO8sK6tH5tJ4uL\ 3wN2wT2yT2wW2wX2rY2mZ2j_2j`2ja2jb9jcFjdLjeRcfPXgNR\ fLKeJDdH7bF8aT8`f8_sDZL7Y`2XoMWedVWwUMX`UW`ZV`cU`h\ U`lNbpGcs9ew3fzD`vMVrVQncKjlFgiEioEvpDzxDwrCpsCjkC\ mcCmWCmVBmUAmUAm9Ym9Nm9Dz8Hz8Lz8Pz8Sz7Wz7_z7cz7fzM\ _z_TzmNzRRz4UzIVzWWzhXzbazXfzRkzLpzGtzSezcSzEVpMUz\ UUz`TzwTzwTzjRzfQzbPzZOzUMzQLzMKzIJzFqzJmzMizPfzSb\ zV_zjbzydzsgzmizglzanzWqzRszhJzVEzH9zIqzFszDtzAvz8\ wz5yz3zzHozUdzZizcmzgqzluzpyzpszbezPTzCGzRSzdczejz\ fRzgKzhEzi7zi1z`7zTDzKJzCPz4VzAUzGUzLTzRTzXSzaSzgR\ zlRzgXzcaz_gzVlzRrzq`zqYz } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================