FOTD 17-11-02 (The Bluest Atom [5])
FOTD -- November 17, 2002 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: I have named today's image "The Bluest Atom". One glance at the image will reveal why the atom in the picture is the bluest. The atom is the midget at the center of the frame. Mandelbrot midgets are sometimes called atoms, as well as Minibrots. Actual atoms, the kind that the world is composed of, have no color. They are far too small. An object's color is determined by the wave length of the visible light that it reflects most strongly. But atoms do not reflect light at all. Light waves are far larger than an atom, and pass by it as though it were not there. A deeper question is whether the particles atoms are made of are there at all. One would assume something is there . . . but is it? . . . The parent of today's image appears as a large irregular Mandeloid bay, with a secondary Mandeloid off to the east. The East Valley of this secondary Mandeloid, which is actually on the north shore, is split down the middle by a cleft that is just starting to open. Today's scene is located in a spiral in a weed-choked cove near the shore of this cleft. The image is broken, much of it consisting of featureless black inside areas. I normally try to avoid such broken areas in my fractal searches, but sometimes these areas produce unexpectedly fine fractals. In today's image, the black areas actually add to the overall somber feeling of the scene. I have rated the image at an average 5. Its feeling of sadness holds it down. If the color palette had been cheerier, I might have rated the picture at a 6. The render time of 28 minutes is unreasonably long for such a gloomy image. To avoid impatience, the download from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> is recommended. It rained steadily all day Saturday here at Fractal Central, keeping the dynamic cats confined to the indoors, where they passed the day in a very un-dynamic fashion. The temperature of 47F 8C did not help at all. Luckily for me, I had stocked lots of tuna and turkey, which kept their bad moods under control. Today is starting just as rainy as yesterday, so I'll likely have to repeat the treats. As for myself, I'm bored with watching rain, yard work is impossible and driving is miserable. After I get a head start on this week's design work, I'll probably reduce myself to watching a game or two on TV and trying to keep the cats happy. The best part of the day will come later, when I shift into my fractal-hunting mode and bring one back alive. Until next time, which will arrive in 24 hours, take care, and are fractals alive or dead? Secondary question: can something that has never been alive be considered dead? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ The_Bluest_Atom { ; time=0:28:16.59--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+1.60774155572676900/+0.024147533971025\ 96/1.570013e+008/1/-7.5/-1.46792394274675164e-007 params=-8.12/-1.8/-10.31/-8.1/0/525 float=y maxiter=3600 inside=0 logmap=512 periodicity=10 colors=00080R80R80S80S70T41T33V34W36X37X38Z2AZ2Ba2\ Cc2Ef2Fi1Hm1Io1Js1Lu1Mx1Nz3Mt5Ls7Lo9KkBKiDJfFJcHI`\ JIYLHWNHUPGSRGQTFOVFNTEPRERQETOEVNDXLDZKD`IDbHCdFC\ fEChCCjBCkEBlHAlK9mN9mQ8nT7nW6oY6o_5pa4pc3qe3qi7ql\ BqoEqmGolImkKljMjiOhhQgfSedUcbVb`W_ZWYXWVVWTTWQRXO\ PXLNXJLXGJXENXHQXJTXMWXOZXQaXTdXVgXYjX_mXahVXjQTeS\ V`UXWWZRY`M_aMYbMWcLVcLTdLSeLQfLOgKNgKLhKJiKIjKGkG\ ClKFkNIkRLkTLmUNkUOjUPiURhUSgUTfUUeUWcUXbUYaUZ`U`_\ UaZUbYUcXReYPgZMhZKj_Hk`Fm`CnaApb5te8qbBn_EkYHhVKe\ SMbQP_NSXKVUIYRF_PDYQGWRJVSMTTORURQVUOWXNXZLYaJ_dI\ agGciEelDgtBiwAjzChvEfwFdpHcoIbnKbmMbkNbjPaiQahSag\ TafWX`ZSVaNTcJVfEXi9_l3`k5ak6bj7cj8ciAdiBdhCehDeiF\ fjGfkHglHgmIhnJhoJipKiqKjrLksLltMmuNnvNowOpxOqyNrz\ MszLtzKuzKvzKwzKxzKyzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKz\ zKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzK\ zzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKzzKz } 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==================================
Hi Jim :) Someone's probably gonna mention this, and it might as well be me since I just lurk here most of the time.
An object's color is determined by the wave length of the visible light that it reflects most strongly. But atoms do not reflect light at all. Light waves are far larger than an atom, and pass by it as though it were not there.
The visible light that you see reflected from the objects you see around you, is reflected at the atomic level. Specifically, it's the electrons that are doing the reflecting. So it is essentially the surface of the atoms that are doing the reflecting. In reality, all you ever see, or touch, are the electrons in atoms. In addition: Individual atoms also reflect light. Yes, they do that. Here is an example that I found interesting many years ago. I used to make custom knives, and so purchased many books on metallurgy. One book from MIT was a historical review, and it mentioned the manner in which the beautiful colors on King Tut's death mask (coffin cover?) were made. Various alloys containing mixtures of silver, lead, (tin?.. it's been a long time since I mae knives :) ), copper, AND GOLD were described. Those alloys all had one thing in common. After the alloys were made, they were applied to surfaces, smoothed, and then etched. As the etching process progressed, all the surface atoms except the gold ones were slowly etched away. That left little gold "bump" atoms sort of lumped on the surface. Kinda like tennis balls cut in half sitting on a table. Those remaining gold atoms reflected light. The etching depth determined the portion of each gold atom that was sticking out of the surface. This in turn determined the color that the whole surface reflected. And yes, by choosing the alloy components, carefully smoothing the alloy surface, and closely monitoring the etch time, you can get essentially the full visible spectrum to reflect from an alloy surface created and etched as I just described. Portions of individual gold atoms doing the reflecting. Stay wicked :) Sam Pell
Sam Pell wrote:
Various alloys containing mixtures of silver, lead, (tin?.. it's been a long time since I mae knives :) ), copper, AND GOLD were described. Those alloys all had one thing in common. After the alloys were made, they were applied to surfaces, smoothed, and then etched. As the etching process progressed, all the surface atoms except the gold ones were slowly etched away. That left little gold "bump" atoms sort of lumped on the surface. Kinda like tennis balls cut in half sitting on a table. Those remaining gold atoms reflected light. The etching depth determined the portion of each gold atom that was sticking out of the surface. This in turn determined the color that the whole surface reflected. And yes, by choosing the alloy components, carefully smoothing the alloy surface, and closely monitoring the etch time, you can get essentially the full visible spectrum to reflect from an alloy surface created and etched as I just described. Portions of individual gold atoms doing the reflecting.
Not only that, but relativistic effects play a role in determining the colour of gold; if one were to try and derive the colour of gold on the basis of a non-relativistic model of the gold atom, you'd determine that it look much like silver, absorbing light primarily in the ultraviolet band. As it is however, relativistic effects alter the electrons' orbits sufficiently that the energy gap between the atom's d and s shells is narrowed, and the deeper shell (the d) becomes affected by interactions that (non-relativistically) would only affect the s shell. The energy absorption band is pulled into the visible part of the spectrum, and so gold takes on the color "silver minus blue". Other relativistic effects can be observed in other atoms, generally in the lower part of the periodic table where the masses are higher; determining bulk and chemical properties of such elements from quantum chemical principles goes awry if one doesn't take into account the fact that, the bulkier the nucleus, the faster the electrons travel around it. Something lke 65%c in the case of gold. The faster they go, the heavier they get, and the closer to the nucleus their orbitals become. Morgan L. Owens "What are you looking at? Heavy electrons."
participants (3)
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Jim Muth -
Morgan L. Owens -
Sam Pell