The Plastic Fractal Magnet

bedessen writes "An article at NewsFactor summarizes the developments in new plastics that exhibit magnetic fields of fractal dimensions. Whereas a simple bar magnet produces magnetic fields that go from the north pole to the south pole, the fields of the new hybrid plastic sprout like branches of a cactus lined with secondary fields that resemble needles. As these fields become increasingly interlocked, they exhibit a unique kind of order. This intensely ordered structure might one day be key to storing information with a very high density. The researchers behind this are Arthur Epstein, director of the Center for Materials Research at Ohio State University, and Joel Miller, a professor of chemistry at the University of Utah. There's also this PDF overview of the subject, which is quite technical but still readable."

Comments

Re:How do you measure 1.6 dimensions?

[popmaker]

You find out how the thing works, or evolves. Take a snowflake. You see how it comes to be, you begin with an ice particle, others start hitting it, sticking with it and form a crystal. This is obviously a process which we can set up mathematically. Like, for each iteration, this happens and that adds to the whole snowflake. By using mathematical rules we now use our knowledge of how a snowflake evolves to find its fractal dimension.

Now, fractals are said to be infinite, that is, they have infinite volume, and a self-similarity on all scales. Natural phenomena does, however, not. So no natural object is a TRUE fractal. But obviously, a snowflake IS self-similar, and it remains self-similar over a number of scales. To be a TRUE fractal it would have to be self-similar infinitely.

But anyhow, if a object is irregular, and behaves like a fractal, finding it's fractal dimension (or finding the dimension of the mathematical object representing it) is actually quite useful.

Just think of a fractal as a result of an iterated process. Trees grow leaves. Snowflakes grow, clouds grow, lightnings twist and turn, coastlines get beaten by oceans, etc. The idea of a fractal gives an insight into how such objects come to look like they do.

and check out my fractal program! :-) fractical

The CHART

[aphor]

Your sig:

It's much easier to mod me down than to post an intelligent reply.

That's true only if the opportunities to mod or post are equal. That seems to be true only around 8:30 CST/CDT. Mod and post on the same discussion are prohibited. The opportunity to mod is a rare thing, and it gives the moderator more influence (although with the all-too-easy click-click convenience) than a poster (who can affect the visibility of the thread only at +2 when sufficient karma has been earned).

I believe the choice to moderate is an important one, and while I agree with your sentiment (I think...) that people who moderate without without knowing what they are doing should think harder about things, I don't think that differentiates moderation from posting replies.

Oh, which brings me to my point: it's easier to suggest that someone else make(or find) a chart instead of doing it yourself...

Note: the Slashdot "lameness filter" didn't like my ASCII art, but it apparently ignores journal entries...

<a ref="http://slashdot.org/~aphor/journal/20520">The chart</a>

is in my journal. Furthermore, Slashdot doesn't like hrefs from comments to a person's journal. The rules to this Slashdot game are neither simple nor obvious!