AuthorsDen.com  Join | Login 

 
Where Authors and Readers come together!

Authors | Books | Audiobooks | eBooks | Signed Bookstore | Stories | Articles | Poetry | Blogs | News | Events | Reviews | Videos | Success | Gold Members | Testimonials

Featured Authors:  Paul Lonardo, iJeff Mason, iRobert Liu, iArmineh Ohanian, iMargot Dillard, iRobin Ouzman Hislop, iLloydene Hill, iJ and C Wordsmiths, iValerie Boggess, iAnn Marie Hannon, i

  Home > Science > Articles
Popular: Books, Stories, Articles, Poetry      Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z     

Susan K. Smith

 Follow Me  

· 217 titles
· 349 Reviews
· Share with Friends!
· Save to My Library
·
Member Since: Jul, 2008

   Sitemap
   My Blog
   Contact Author
   Read Reviews



Books
· Jane's Buns Mystery: The Missing Ingredients

· Bring Them In! : College, Churches, Cults

· Pow Wow

· STC

· Rainmaker

· Peacemaker

· Counting Coup

· His Tribe of One


Short Stories
· Gospel according to X (twitter)

· Halloween 1984 - Out of this World

· 1984 Olympics

· Shakespeare in Rainmaker Park

· Great Expectations (21st Century London)

· Christmas Party at the STC

· October Surprise on Halloween

· World War 2: memories of North Africa

· World War Two - before, during, and after

· The Great Depression 1929 - 1945 - Part 2


Articles
· America 250: Benjamin Franklin

· Jane's Buns Mystery: The Missing Ingredients

· Cats (part 6) - When Johnny Comes Marching Home

· Christmas 1776

· JFK and America in England

· You are the audience

· Bring Them In!

· Bring Them In!

· Snow White Trailer Trash Talk

· Generation Gap


Poetry
· The Event that Sam Built

· On Mortality

· Snow

· Vain Glory

· Night and Day

· Feelings

· Night Watch

· Metamorphosis

· Success

· Out West Again!

         More poetry...
News
· Peacemaker

· The Commander and the Chief series

Susan K. Smith, click here to update your web pages on AuthorsDen.

Books by
Susan K. Smith











See all Books
by Susan K. Smith


Fractal Dimensions – Twilight Zone? No, Nature!
by Susan K. Smith
Last edited: Saturday, September 24, 2011
Posted: Friday, November 7, 2008



     
Familiar with one, two, and three dimensions? What about dimensions of 0.63 or 1.26? It’s not science fiction, but quite natural.



Fractal Dimensions – Twilight Zone?  No, Nature!

A group of scientists is calculating how fast a chicken can fly. The physicist begins – “Let us first assume a spherical chicken …”

This is a favorite punch line of physics jokes.
 
What brings a smile to the face is that the joke makes a point about the absurdity of some assumptions. The real world is not nice and smooth and symmetrical, like straight lines, circles, squares, spheres, cubes, and such. If it were, it would greatly simplify calculations.
 
The French mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot was one of the first to bring fractal geometry to our consciousness, which can be used to describe nature more accurately.  He coined the term, “fractal,” derived from the Latin fractus meaning “broken” or “fractured.”
 
A fractal can be defined as having the following features:
 
It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional Euclidean geometry.
It is self-similar (at least approximately).
It has a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales.
It can have a dimension which is greater than its topological dimension.
It has a simple and recursive definition.
 
Natural objects that approximate fractals include clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, snow flakes, tree leaves, the convoluted surfaces of our brains, even some of the vegetables we eat.
 
Please reference the website:  http://www.smithsk.com/physics_fractals.htm 
for the rest of the article.

It has some pictures, which do not display well in this format.

 © November 7, 2008, S. K. Smith

 

 

Web Site: S. K. Smith - Articles - Physics - Fractals


Want to review or comment on this article?


Need a FREE Reader Membership?

Reviewed by Melissa Mendelson (Reader)
Reviewed on November 1, 2009
Interesting article.

Reviewed by - - - - - TRASK
Reviewed on November 8, 2008
Even More Interesting,i.e.I Was In Near Death Auto Accident 1993 In Which Not Only Did I Disappear--My Car Went With Me Into Sort Of:

Like Massive Pores In Your Skin,Unbelievable Static/Electrical Noise In My (Head)Ears,Like In (New Born Baby FloatingPlacenta),Gone (Look Watch Prior)Approx 5-7minutes--What I Saw Was With My Mind Not My Eyes,i.e. There Are Obviously Other Dimensions In Which Life (Exists) Goes On...Other Dimensions Have Fascinated Me Since Childhood In Which (Many Which I Have Observed (How I Came Here As 3 Year Old Child In UFO) UFO's Move (Travel) Back (In Out) Forth...

Credit Illuminating Write... For Being 1 Intelligent Lady You Sure Got Your Act Together...

TRASK


New Articles by Susan K. Smith
article Image
As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, this July 4, 2026, let’s have a look at one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. <br>He was
America 250: Benjamin Franklin
article Image
I am pleased to introduce the Mystery series: Jane's Buns Mystery <br> <br>Jane Meyer and Alfie Dawkins are aspirational heroes whom ordin
Jane's Buns Mystery: The Missing Ingredients
article Image
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again..... .......There is a cat to welcome him!
Cats (part 6) - When Johnny Comes Marching Home
article Image
For our first American Christmas in 1776, we got a priceless present from our founding fathers and mothers - Freedom!
Christmas 1776
article Image
Queen Elizabeth II, signed the JFK Memorial Act, which expanded the US global territory by one acre.
JFK and America in England
article Image
Writers. Who is your target audience?
You are the audience
article Image
College, Churches, Cults. Would-be messiah Bill Renfrew finds naïve college student Samantha Matijevic an easy mark in the uncertain 1970s.
Bring Them In!
article Image
Snow White 2025 seems to be as cursed as the poison apple with PR nightmares and bad press. <br>Then the "trailer trash" reviews came in with b
Snow White Trailer Trash Talk
article Image
Such distinctions can be valuable for writers when crafting their characters who grew up in the generation that defined them.
Generation Gap
article Image
The Commander and the Chief take on the rogue Deep State: <br>the Gunfight at the UK Corral, <br>missing Redcoats in the Nevada Triangle
Pow Wow
article Image
Spanning the centuries of artists, we have the confluence of van Gogh -19th century painter - and Don McLean - 20th and 21st century rock composer.
The Starry Night
article Image
As King Charles III's coronation will/has happened on May 6, 2023, here is a tribute to his mother and interesting ancestors.
2 Boleyn Sisters - 2 Queen Elizabeths
article Image
Breaking Bad meets Star Trek and Pies! <br> <br>And hopefully it brings a laugh -- LOL -- for Pi(e) Day!
Breaking Bad meets Star Trek and Pies
article Image
Robert Graves wrote his historical novel, I, Claudius (1934) as an autobiographical memoir of the Roman Emperor Claudius (reign 41-54 A.D.)
I, Claudius vs the Senate
article Image
Hiraeth- (noun) - a deep, wistful, nostalgic sense of longing for home; a home that is no longer or perhaps never was. A yearning and wistful grief fo
Hiraeth
article Image
Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, aka USSR, passed away on August 30, 2022. <br> <br>Gorbachev's tenure
Mikhail Gorbachev
article Image
86,400 <br> <br>That's how many seconds are in a day. And some wax philosophical about it--as that is the time allotted for any of us per
86,400
article Image
1984 <br>Interesting year. <br>This Superbowl ad aired--once:
1984
article Image
We respect the pronouns of another human being. Do we respect God's pronouns?
God's Pronouns
article Image
The lyrics of Cabaret put forth the philosophy of life: Eat, Drink, Be Merry <br> <br>Let's explore this philosophy through the Biblical l
Eat, Drink, Be Merry