Fractal Types Support
The Fractal Science Kit fractal generator supports 3 basic types of fractals:
To support these disparate fractal types, the Fractal Science Kit is partitioned into 3 major components, each serviced by a different fractal generation framework. While there are many shared concepts/resources (e.g., transformations), the basic framework for each fractal type is quite different. See the Fractal Image Gallery for examples of each of the fractal types.
Mandelbrot Fractals
Mandelbrot Fractals
include divergent and convergent fractals that can be produced by iterating a
fractal formula with respect to a sample point on the complex plane and coloring
each sample point based on the size and characteristics of the resulting
iteration. Mandelbrot Fractals encompass several related
fractal types including Mandelbrot fractals,
Julia fractals, Convergent
fractals, Newton fractals, and
Orbit Traps.
Orbital Fractals
Orbital
Fractals
include those fractals produced by iterating a fractal formula a fixed number of
times, keeping track of those points that are visited during the iteration, how
many times each point is visited, etc. Each point is colored based on these
accumulated statistics. Sierpinski N-gons, IFS fractals, Strange
Attractors, Rep-N Tiles,
Circle Inversion fractals,
Kleinian Group fractals, Symmetric Icons, Symmetric Attractors,
Frieze Group Attractors,
Wallpaper Group Attractors, and
Hyperbolic Attractors,
are all examples of Orbital
Fractals.
L-System Fractals
L-System
Fractals are generated from a sequence of statements or rules that
recursively define the movement of a virtual pen to produce a fractal.