Cycles and Circles (Fractal LXV)

It’s time to set clocks back an hour again, if you are in an area that practices daylight savings time. I sometimes wish we didn’t use it here in Colorado; it always manages to confuse my schedule somehow. At any rate, I figured I’d honor the turning of the wheel of time, and the changing seasons with an abstract fractal:

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Seasonal Cycles and Fractal Concentric Circles

It might not seem too recognizable, but I used the same sort of formula to create this fractal as I did these fractal trees earlier in the year. Since I’ve been messing around with animations lately, it may actually be easier to just show how a tree can turn into a wheel (or to be more precise, a fractal wheel can turn into a tree and back again.)

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Notice that the number of divisions in the branches increases (or decreases) in increments, while the change in size is gradual. It seems like a fitting metaphor for autumnal changes... the trees gradually change color and lose their leaves, but a cold snap can arrive in an instant. (Come to think of it, this might make a pretty accurate analogy for global climate change as well.)

Fractals made by the author using ChaosPro.

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