Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries!mcdonald From: mcdonald@aries.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: fractals as bad science Message-ID: <1989Nov28.164050.20883@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 28 Nov 89 16:40:50 GMT References: <119.256E54C5@uscacm.UUCP> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Reply-To: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) Organization: School of Chemical Sciences, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Lines: 31 In article <119.256E54C5@uscacm.UUCP> Jim.McNamee@p7.f12.n376.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jim McNamee) writes: > > Mark T Vandewettering writes: > >"Fractal geometry may be able to generate images which are convincing images > of nature (and even this I might contest) but this in no way indicates > anything about the mechanism that generates such phenomena." > > >"... but as far as helping to understand real phenomena, I have yet to >see convincing arguments that fractals are of any use whatsoever. I > could draw a bunch of lines that looks like a bug, and that doesn't >mean I understand anything about the nature of >bugs." > There are things in nature that are indeed of a fractal nature. The most obvious is the scale of fluctuations in the density of fluids near critical points. The realization that the amount of fluctuation scaled fractally gave rise to the theory that correctly predicted the equations of state, and thence to a Nobel Prize. This is actually an easy experiment: mix equal volumes of water and triethylamine. Watch what happens as you change the temperature through 15 degrees C. It turns a milky while. I do it as a lecture demo. (Don't try this at home folks, at least indoors. Triethylamine stinks something awful and is mildly poisonous.) Doug McDonald Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com