birds forming a sierpinski triangle

[cKleinhuis]

just found this on facebook:



dunno if its fake or really real, but somehow cool

[KRAFTWERK]

I do not think it is fake, I see those bird patterns at home sometimes.
But you need a pretty good imagination to see the sierpinski triangle... 

[taurus]

one can also see the silhouette of a mountain range here, which is not so far away from a sierpinski triangle.
the mont-blanc massive fits quite ok if you flip it horizontally... 

[DarkBeam]

Okay, "Fractals everywhere" was a good book but you are getting carried away?

[cKleinhuis]

I do not think it is fake, I see those bird patterns at home sometimes.
But you need a pretty good imagination to see the sierpinski triangle... 

you can even spot self similarities in there, you have many small triangles, several smaller ( or nearly same amount ) and ... they form a triangle
simple as that it isnt geometrically "perfect" but the structure is recognizable ...

sure it comes out of an easy algorithm....

for every bird:
if no one in front of you take travel speed
if you have birds in front of you target left or either right side - a bird-place.distance to the right/left - preferably the closest one


would be interesting to see if crowd systems would form a sierpinski as well but not in the mood of crowd simulating ....

[KRAFTWERK]

I do not think it is fake, I see those bird patterns at home sometimes.
But you need a pretty good imagination to see the sierpinski triangle... 

you can even spot self similarities in there, you have many small triangles, several smaller ( or nearly same amount ) and ... they form a triangle
simple as that it isnt geometrically "perfect" but the structure is recognizable ...

sure it comes out of an easy algorithm....

for every bird:
if no one in front of you take travel speed
if you have birds in front of you target left or either right side - a bird-place.distance to the right/left - preferably the closest one


would be interesting to see if crowd systems would form a sierpinski as well but not in the mood of crowd simulating ....

The reason birds take that position has to to with aerodynamics too, it gives them less drag due to the birds "in front".

[bib]

Looks like cellular automata more than pure Sierpinski

[Madman]

The reason birds take that position has to to with aerodynamics too, it gives them less drag due to the birds "in front".

Well... not exactly... Aerodynamics: yes,drag: no. What happens is that every wing creates a vortex at the wingtip. If the bird behind the first bird puts its wing in the upgoing part of the vortex, you have "free" energy (wel not exactly, because it is created by the bird in  front), so you don't need to flap your wings as much ;-)

(Okay, maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I'm a glider pilot and thus interested in any airflow going up  )