Welcome to Fractal Forums

If any of your friends or family want an introduction to fracals, try < http://video.google.com/videoplay ? docid=-3034959314635185121 >.  Its an hour long video with Arthur C. Clarke as narrator.  It covers (lightly) Mandelbrot's and Julia's discoveries, then advances such as Barnesley compression.  Its hardly complete or scholarly but it would save a lot of elementary explaination.  The videos of deep zooms are hypnotic.

An excellent introduction to fractals, from arguably the most influential speakers of the topic and certainly heavyweights of mathematics and science:

Benoit Mandelbrot 'Father of fractal geometry':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot)

Michael Barnsley is a researcher and an entrepreneur who has worked on fractal compression:
http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~barnsley/ (http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~barnsley/)
http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=profile;u=36;sa=showPosts (http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=profile;u=36;sa=showPosts)

Professor Ian Stewart FRS Professor of Mathematics, Warwick University:
http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/staff/ins.html (http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/staff/ins.html)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stewart_(mathematician) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stewart_(mathematician))

Stephen Hawking:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking)

Arthur C. Clarke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke)

This is a 'gateway' introduction to Fractals.  You see the very founders of the topic speaking with great energy and enthusiasm about, what amounts in many cases, to their life's work.  How do you capture their enthusiasm into a 50 minute film?  How do you describe the 'infinitely complex' to someone?

The only problem with this video being posted to the Internet is that it is copyrighted.

I seriously doubt that the person who uploaded this movie has the authority to make it universally available as a download from any site.  This is especially true since it is still being sold by the Films Media Group, Films for the Humanities & Sciences at the following URL:

    The Colors of Infinity (http://www.films.com/id/7633/Fractals_The_Colors_of_Infinity.htm)

Kayla Mittelman posted a message to the Apophysis discussion list back on August 25th about a link on another site showing this video.  It was soon removed when it was brought to the attention of the site's owners (and to the actual copyright owners as well).

I enjoyed the introductory video regarding fractals. I have a simple page describing the math behind the Mandelbrot fractal set and exponential color smoothing here if anyone is interested:

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractalHelp.html (http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractalHelp.html)

I also have a java applet that allows the user to explore the Mandelbrot fractal on http://www.codingmagic.com (http://www.codingmagic.com):

http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html (http://www.codingmagic.com/StarFractal/StarFractal.html)

The image is generated in escape stages as opposed to pixel-by-pixel and is very responsive to user input. Comments and suggestions are always appreciated. Enjoy and welcome to the world of fractals!

Pierre

Oh i must look at this later when I'm on the laptop(browsing with my phone now which doesn't do videos)
Big fan of Arthur C Clarke,sadly missed

good job!I enjoyed the introductory video

Since the above link is no longer valid, to the unauthorized showing of this video (removed as it should have been), do we modify the message to take out the link??  Or just leave it, and put a notice about it being a bad URL ??

@nahee, i think this thread contains useful information, but you are right we should
mention that it is copyrighted material and it is not accessible ...

Thanks for leaving the page up for info. 
I managed to track down the video and it's well worth a watch.  If not for this page I would never have known about it.
Brilliant to see the great man himself talking about his discovery and work on it too, and as you have said already - some really amazing visuals.
And the other links you guys have on here are great too for someone looking to learn about fractals and the mandelbrot set for the first time.  Really helpful.
Thanks
:-)

There is a lecture by Dr Mandelbrot on the MIT website too which is quite interesting (well I found it to be so).
It is titled Fractals in Science, Engineering and Finance (Roughness and Beauty)
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/52

I found "Colors of Infinity" posted on u-tube, in 6 parts. Does anybody know if that's a legal posting ? I'll try and contact the Films group that Nahee gave a link to, to find out. Thanks Nahee for the link. I'm very curious to know as I embeded all 6 flash objects into my site. I'll unpublish the page, until I find out more info.

I imagine that any posting you find on the Internet for that particular video will be an illegal upload.  That is why they never stay very long before being removed.

This video is very easy to find on google videos. Whatever they're doing the copyright owners are not able to expunge it from the net. Whether we should reference it or not is another matter, but as in all these cases the business generated by an illegal copy on the net generates more revenue than any other form of advertising.

Since it is easy to get hold of, because there are always so many unscrupulous individuals out there, there really should not be a link to any specific video, only a mention as to where and how to search for it.  (A link would only become invalid in a short period anyway.)


I seriously doubt that people are purchasing the CD or DVD from a legitimate source/s, after viewing it from an illegally uploaded location.  More than likely, another person just makes a copy for themselves (and eventually uploads it somewhere else.)

I personally have one of the originally made CDs, from when it came out and was being shown on PBS stations.  And have also purchased the DVD version.  I sometimes play them at seminars and exhibitions that I am part of.
 

Very useful thread. Trying to find kid-friendly layman terms tutorials and resources for my kids. Loved the 3d zoom video

Great stuff. I had the pleasure of corresponding with Arthur C. Clarke and talking with Benoit Mandlebrot. Here's a quote from the great man on my Xenofractal project.

"More importantly, it seems to me that what you were generating is something much more impressive than Fractal Patterns. What you're really showing is views of our galaxy, in the far future when we've had time to do a little landscape gardening." Arthur C. Clarke (Nov 1994).

Oh....and Prof. Ian Stewart was my Prof at University for my PhD.

Truly an honour to meet and work with the greats.

Keith
www.Xenofractals.com

I had trouble following the link - seemed to be broken.  But I know the documentary, one of the most lovely introductions to fractals and the Mandelbrot Set!
Robert

Been updating websites and blogs - now have some of my work on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uklvx806qdo

Just one example of the xenofractal (these are akin to living organisms as you can see).

Would be interested in my feedback/comments.

Kind regards,



Keith

I just watched 'The Colors of Infinity on Vimeo for those interested. http://vimeo.com/82672101

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=56gzV0od6DU
The genius of Mandelbrot

The doctrine of Topological Ideation we call geometry! The Formenlehre of Hermanns Grassmann. We pick out the uniform to measure the differences, but nobody tells us this nowadays, or rather formerly. Now young people know about fractals, but not to look back to Euclid and the ancients.

Last one was sort of cool.  Might have seen it before... because it is similar to other videos.