Looking for a mathematician to help answer (stupid) questions

[CantDoMaths]

Hello all,

I have some questions regarding the theoretic side of fractals.
Namely how formulas are made. And if it is possible at all to use
existing equations, converting them somehow so that they can be applied as fractal formulae.

Im a total noob so I might say something stupid now but.

Would it for instance be possible to use an equation that (partly?) describes DNA
and then convert it to a fractal applicable formula?

I have only a vague notion of how to say what I mean but I hope I got my point across.

Thanks in advance

[cKleinhuis]

lol

so, you are lacking a bit of the theoretical backgrounds, fractals are everywhere, the practical use it not clear yet, althoug chaos theory implications are already widely used ( for example mobile phone antennas ) the theoretical mathematical applications are far from really useable, beside analysising surfaces by fractal dimensions few applications still exists ( i suggest you take a look into the book "Chaos" by James Gleich which is stil a very good introduction to chaos theory )

for the task of creation formulas, a formula needs to have a contractive and an expanding part, in a way that some starting values converge, others diverge

so, for example "x*2" would not be a good candidate for a fractal formula, because it just has a expanding part...

[CantDoMaths]

Thank you for the book suggestion. I'll see if I can find it.

[Chillheimer]

Hi!
I read about a guy who developed a programm that you feed with lots of data, e.g. from measurements, and it then tries to find formulas that would generate exactly those results. I don`t find the linnk right now, but will search for it when I`m back home.
Edit: found it
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureqa

The problem very often is, that our realworld is connected and intertwined, so the fractal nature is not obvious and it`s very hard to find a simple formula, when it`s all about multi-fractals..

Regarding your DNA example, check this out:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/12/506

Cheers!