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National Geographic's "infinite photograph" series is an endless, fractal mosaic of beautiful images from around the world, each based on a different theme : US National Parks, the natural world, weather, or one day's contribution to the source for all the photographs used, the National Geographic My Shot site. (requires Flash). [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul on Jan 28, 2011 - 4 comments

New math theories reveal the nature of numbers [1,2] - "We prove that partition numbers are 'fractal' for every prime. These numbers, in a way we make precise, are self-similar in a shocking way. Our 'zooming' procedure resolves several open conjectures, and it will change how mathematicians study partitions." (/.|via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless on Jan 22, 2011 - 45 comments

Let's say you're me and you're in math class, and you're supposed to be learning about factoring. Trouble is, your teacher is too busy trying to convince you that factoring is a useful skill for the average person to know with real-world applications ranging from passing your state exams all the way to getting a higher SAT score and unfortunately does not have the time to show you why factoring is actually interesting. It's perfectly reasonable for you to get bored in this situation. So like any reasonable person, you start doodling. [more inside]
posted by ErWenn on Dec 3, 2010 - 27 comments

New fractal art from Metafilter's own Jock Cooper. Fractal animations, some with fractal music, mechanical fractals, zoomable fractals, even a DVD. Main site. Previously.
posted by sunnichka on Nov 4, 2010 - 9 comments

The Mandelbulb "The original Mandelbrot is an amazing object that has captured the public's imagination for 30 years. It's found by following a relatively simple math formula. But in the end, it's still only 2D and flat - there's no depth, shadows, perspective, or light sourcing. What we have featured in this article is a potential 3D version of the same fractal."
posted by dhruva on Nov 12, 2009 - 117 comments

Arthur C. Clarke presents a documentary on fractals [more inside]
posted by mhjb on Jul 30, 2009 - 25 comments

Polynomial (yt) is a 3D space shooter with mathematically generated fractal scenery and models by Dmytry Lavrov with demos available for Linux, (Intel) OSX, & Windows. (via)
posted by juv3nal on Jun 23, 2009 - 35 comments

Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid has been recorded as a series of video lectures for MIT's Open Courseware project.
posted by loquacious on May 30, 2009 - 74 comments

40 fractals created with Apophysis, a freeware fractal flame generator. [more inside]
posted by Upton O'Good on Jan 12, 2009 - 18 comments

Quest for a true 3D Mandelbrot Fractal - a very nice exploration of Mandelbrot/Julia set fractals in various kinds of 3D space.
posted by loquacious on Sep 14, 2008 - 21 comments

How deep does the rabbit hole go? The Ultimate Fractal Video Project features animated zooms into the famous Mandelbrot Set. Some zoom in so far that, by the end of the dive, the first frame you had viewed would be as large as (or larger than) the known universe. | The animations are offered as .zip'd WMV files; lower-quality versions are viewable on FractAlkemist's YouTube page. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Jul 29, 2008 - 13 comments

BrainPaint. Beautiful, real-time images created through neurofeedback by using the electrical activity of the brain to seed fractal patterns.
posted by homunculus on Sep 9, 2007 - 21 comments

Dr. Jeannine Mosely finishes building a level-3 Menger sponge from business cards. You can also build your own, though Dr. Mosely warns, "[a] level 4 sponge would require almost a million cards and weigh over a ton. I do not believe it could support its own weight — so a level 3 is the biggest sponge we can hope to build." (related)
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Feb 2, 2007 - 19 comments

Mengermania tracks the progress of building a level four Menger sponge out of index cards (related - level three with business cards). [via]
posted by tellurian on Jan 18, 2007 - 5 comments

A talk with Benoît Mandelbrot, entitled Fractals in Science, Engineering and Finance (Roughness and Beauty) [video, 80mins, realplayer] about fractals as A Theory of Roughness.
posted by MetaMonkey on Dec 3, 2006 - 5 comments

300 Miles High
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jul 17, 2006 - 18 comments

Playing with fractal generators can result in images that remind some of creatures in the natural world. Did you know that the nudibranch^ can be evocative of certain Julia-set fractals? Especially when you see them in motion. Be sure to check out the "scubadiving" and related YouTube tags for other deep-sea creatures. I especially liked this one.
posted by WolfDaddy on Jun 23, 2006 - 16 comments

Loes Modderman's Science Art
Beautiful microscopic art, often striking similar to some modern art. Dig the abstract crystal images: cholesterol, crystal landscapes, vitamin c is psychedelic. Explore the sands of the world! Bubbles are pretty, plastics rock, fluids are minimalist. (via)
posted by MetaMonkey on Mar 30, 2006 - 5 comments

These images remind us never to underestimate our opponent. -- The science behind the art (.pdf). Fractal art by way of bacteria growin' in a petri dish. A few more images here.
posted by Gator on Mar 7, 2006 - 7 comments

The coolest broccoli/cauliflower you will see today. Those with a green thumb can grow their own but I would be content to merely eat it.
posted by hindmost on Oct 18, 2005 - 32 comments

Fractal animation videos. Tune in. Turn on. Drop in on a dripping skirling-swirling pulsating orgy of self-transforming recursive math. Some with fractal music. (Non-embedded mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 files, like God intended.)
posted by loquacious on Aug 7, 2005 - 15 comments

Spore: Recursive-algorithmic-genetic art. More. With some nice videos, too. Fractal Flames. Also see: Electric Sheep, a distributed-parallel-computing genetic-algorithm eye-candy screen-saver thing. More screen-savers. Yum. (via MoFi and peacay)
posted by loquacious on May 21, 2005 - 10 comments

Electric Sheep: Collaborative Fractal Generation
Electric Sheep is a distributed screen-saver that harnesses idle computers into a render farm with the purpose of animating and evolving artificial life-forms.The project is an attention vortex. It illustrates the process by which the longer and closer one studies something, the more detail and structure appears.

You can look at some fresh samples or you can read the Interpretation, watch the Sheepumentary, post a comment, design your own or design them and post them to their server or download a copy and play along at home.
You can even get a copy of the source code to play around with if you're so inclined.

Me? I'm just gonna look at the pretty pictures.
posted by fenriq on Feb 1, 2005 - 17 comments

Fractal Maze, one of the most evil puzzles I have ever encountered. It's documented briefly at mathpuzzle.com (scroll down a bit), which also features a smaller fractal maze.
posted by Wolfdog on Jan 18, 2005 - 16 comments

Keith's Fractal Art.
posted by Gyan on Jul 3, 2004 - 7 comments

Chaoscopia.
posted by Gyan on Jun 19, 2004 - 8 comments

The Infinite Art of Kerry Mitchell and Janet Parke.
posted by Gyan on Jun 8, 2004 - 8 comments

Blatte's Pages.
posted by Gyan on May 31, 2004 - 7 comments

The Buddhabrot Set is a re-visualization of the Mandelbrot Set, created with a rendering technique invented by Melinda Green, who further extended it to create the Buddhagram. [Via MonkeyFilter.]
posted by homunculus on Feb 4, 2004 - 15 comments