'The clouds… have a fractal quality.'
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The title comes from the Van Goyen landscape:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fractals-in-art-chosen-by-marcus-du-sautoy-s0m8g2ssnI would love for someone to expand on fractals and clouds for me.
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Hello,
From what I know, fractals are self-similar patterns over varying scales.
What does that mean?
It means the same pattern is repeated, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger until an overall pattern emerges that we recognize as the thing.
For example, broccoli is made up of many flowerets. All together they make one bunch of broccoli. If you break off the floweretes and stand them up singly, you will find graduations in their size, that is the scaling, and they all look alike, that is the self-similarity.
This building template is often found in nature. You can find it in many vegetables, cauliflower, for example.
It is not easy,however, to discern the fractal nature in phenomena because there is also a mathematical relationship involved, hence clouds may have a “fractal quality” but may not necessarily be a true fractal.
But the simple idea of self-similarity is fun to start recognizing in things around you.
Hope this helps a little.
Linda
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Linda, I think you hit the nail on the head by pointing out that fractal quality may not be true fractal.Thank you.
In this link #29 is a cloud picture, vortices is it?
http://themindunleashed.com/2014/10/30-beautiful-photographs-fractals-nature.html
Many of the examples seem more ordered than your average cloud.
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