1. chaoticutopia
  2. Homemade Holiday Fractals

Homemade Holiday Fractals

By chaoticutopia on December 23, 2006.

In order to create a festive holiday fractal, you don't even need a computer. All you need are a few standard Christmas decorations: glass balls and lights. (Actually, you don't even need Christmas lights, any light source will do.) It's quite simple: put the balls in a small pile under the light, pressing up against one another. Voila:

i-e277204d4858c0e04522e3eed7d105b9-christmasballs.jpg

If you manage to get 4 balls together in a tetrahedron (each ball touching every other ball) the fractal image in the middle is called a Wada basin. In this type of fractal, there are three basins of attraction--areas where the patterns tend to converge, but never quite meet. No matter how deep you look into the fractal (or zoom in, which is a bit difficult as you're peering into a pile of balls) all three basins of attraction will be visible.

To read more about Wada basins, or to see more accurate representations than my humble photo, check out Paul Bourke's page. His gallery includes this lovely image, created by Rasta Robert:

i-478be4491ec75b376b4bbf6e1f74c019-wada.jpg

The regular Friday Fractal Feature will resume next Friday (hopefully on time, for a change)... in the meantime, have a happy holidays!

Tags
Fractals

More like this

Friday Fractal XLVIII: The Basics of Fractals
Today, you can create your own fractal. (Don't worry, I'll still include one of my artistic fractals at the end of this post.) You don't need to download any programs, or learn any new techniques. In fact, the only thing that you need is probably already sitting on your desk: a single piece of…
Fractal Paper Snowflakes (Fractal LXVII)
Some time ago, I gave instructions for making your own paper fractal. I’ve decided to do another today. This time, instead of ending up with a crumpled paper ball, you’ll have a design worthy of becoming a holiday decoration. Remember those old paper snowflakes that we would cut as children? We’re…
Friday Fractal XII
I thought I'd do today's fractal a little backwards. I usually begin with a fractal, then show a matching picture from nature, and explain a bit of the science behind the nature. This time, I'm going to start off with a nature photo, and follow with the fractals. Everyone should be familiar with…
Friday Fractal Nostalgia
I'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite from all of the fractals I've done as a Friday Feature. I started the feature in April of last year, after playing around with a fractal toy that a friend of mine built. Since then, I've created a piece of nature-inspired fractal art nearly every week. I've…

Amazing picture.

Have a wonderful 2007.

Hey, I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part people lack substance but I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog! Iâll be checking in on a regularly now. Keep up the good work!