Could someone please explain in words of one syllable.......

[divegirl]

....What is the Julia set?

Lisa x

[gen2]

It is a relative of the Mandelbrot set.

After that it gets complicated.

[scotman]

not possible in words that short. You could try looking for a download of 'Fractint' program which used to be free and enjoy yourself.

[divegirl]

I gathered that gen2...lol

My son asked me about it tonight, I think he was probably [most definitely] taking the Fosters!!!!
Thanks for your answers

Lisa x

[divegirl]

OK.....Just had another look and have just one more question........
What is it actually for? I mean what purpose does it serve, apart from looking pretty?

Lisa x

[Clanad]

At its most basic, the "Julia set" is a "fractal"... and basically, a fractal is any pattern that reveals greater complexity as it is enlarged... Benoit Mandelbrot, who developed the theories and wrote "The Fractal Geometry of Nature" explained, through geometry, that fractals became more and more complex the more closely they were examined. Previously, mathmatics appeared to predict simplification of patterns the more closely they were observed. Any pattern subject to Euclidean examination could be reduced to one or more straight lines. Fractals, exposed to extremely small modifications are shown to develop more and more complexity... Probably only observable through advance computer capabilities...

[dr b]

To get a sense of what fractals are good for, besides looking pretty, see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_analysis

Unfortunately several words exceed 1 syllable.

[divegirl]

Brilliant Clanad....Perfect answer!
Cheers every one

Lisa x

[jake-the-peg]

The Julia set is related to nonlinear dynamics or chaos theory.

in a moving system there is a notion of something called an attractor. A simple example might be a pendulum - give it a push and it comes back to a single point - the attractor.

Now lets take a more complex example - imagine a pendulum that has a magnetic bob and 3 magnets equally spaced underneath. like this:

http://vimeo.com/5954067

Which magnet will it end up over - it depends where it starts.

Draw a map - mark each starting position for the magnet it ends up over red for one, blue for the second, yellow for the third.

What you find is that the picture is infinitetly complex. The attractor now is not a point but a "fractal" a shape with non integer dimensions.

The motion is chaotic and to predict where it will end you need to know where it started from with infinite accuracy.

The Julia set and the mandelbrot sets are both shapes like the map of the magnetic pendulum.

Mathematically they are derived by doing specific calculations with complex numbers over and over again for each point.

Hope this helps it's about as simple as I can make it