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"Mandelbulb," a 3D Mandlebrot Construct, Discovered

symbolset writes "Many know the beauty and complexity of the Mandelbrot set. For some years now a few enterprising mathematicians / rendering fiends have been seeking a true 3D Mandelbrot set. A month ago a solution was found, and it is awesome to behold."

28 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Actually, the Mandelbrot set is already 4D by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Informative

    While the Mandelbrot set as usually defined is 2D, each point has an associated Julia set, where instead of the additive constant, the starting point is varied (the original Mandelbrot set always uses zero as starting point). Together, they give a 4-dimensional set, where two dimensions are given by the starting point (zr, zi), and the other two by the additive constant (cr, ci). The original Mandelbrot set is a cut through this 4D set at the plane zr=zi=0, while the Julia sets are cuts orthogonal to theat, at planes with constant cr and ci.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    1. Re:Actually, the Mandelbrot set is already 4D by jhesse · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This.

      You can find a picture of a "4-D" Mandlebrot set in a mid/late 80's issue of Scientific American.
      I was generating pictures of this on a 286 pc. (with EGA graphics) 15 years ago, and the pictures
      in TFA of z^2 look *nothing* like that did.

      --

      --
      "I have also mastered pomposity, even if I do say so myself." -Kryten
    2. Re:Actually, the Mandelbrot set is already 4D by Eudial · · Score: 5, Interesting

      While not a pure mandelbrot, but a buddhabrot rendering: For the curious, here's a nice 2D projection of such a (rotating) 4D fractal I whipped up a while back.

      --
      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    3. Re:Actually, the Mandelbrot set is already 4D by caramelcarrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also, trying to extend the Mandelbrot set to 3D is ill-defined as there is no good 3D algebra equivalent to the complex numbers (two, 1 and i) or quarternions (four, 1 and i, j, k) - hence you can't express the iteration formula in 3D.

    4. Re:Actually, the Mandelbrot set is already 4D by Garble+Snarky · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I was following the fractalforums thread for a while, and IIRC that is what a lot of the discussion focused on - "how can we define the squaring operation in 3D such that the Mandelbrot iterative equation gives us something like our vague notion of what we want the Mandelbulb to look like?"

      Site is down, but I got an email notification from fractalforums a few days ago, and they had some incredible results. The pursuit is at least as much aesthetic as it is mathematical, and in that respect they've succeeded marvelously.

    5. Re:Actually, the Mandelbrot set is already 4D by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People who say they see 3-D crack me up, since the back of the eye is a 2-D surface.

      But most people have two eyes, and the parallax between them gives the third dimension.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    6. Re:Actually, the Mandelbrot set is already 4D by fractoid · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This post needs more +insightful. What a lot of people are missing by getting wound up in the maths is that it is an artistic endeavour. Their definition of "a mandelbrot" (and yes, this broken terminology bugs the pedant in me beyond belief) is nothing to do with z^2+c, and everything to do with "a pretty looking blobby thing that maintains an aesthetically pleasing and visually interesting level of surface detail at all magnifications".

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  2. Not a "true" 3D Mandelbrot by HEbGb · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's definitely nifty, the pictures are beautiful, and the creator deserves praise, but the author himself says it's probably not a "true" 3D Mandelbrot:

    http://www.skytopia.com/project/fractal/2mandelbulb.html#epilogue

    As exquisite as the detail is in our discovery, there's good reason to believe that it isn't the real McCoy. ... ...
    Evidence it's not the holy grail? Well, the most obvious is that the standard quadratic version isn't anything special. Only higher powers (around after 3-5) seem to capture the detail that one might expect. The original 2D Mandelbrot has organic detail even in the standard power/order 2 version. Even power 8 in the 3D Mandelbulb has smeared 'whipped cream' sections, which are nice in a way as they provide contrast to the more detailed parts, but again, they wouldn't compare to the variety one might expect from a 3D version of Seahorse valley.

    So, Slashdot, I know this is asking a lot, but can you PLEASE at least read the article before posting? Thanks.

    1. Re:Not a "true" 3D Mandelbrot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You must be new here.

    2. Re:Not a "true" 3D Mandelbrot by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Funny

      So, Slashdot, I know this is asking a lot, but can you PLEASE at least read the article before posting?

      No! I hate everything you stand for.

  3. Ice Cream From Uranus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That ruined it for me.

    1. Re:Ice Cream From Uranus? by SeNtM · · Score: 5, Funny

      Professor: "I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all."
      Fry: "Oh. What's it called now?"
      Professor: "Urrectum. Here, let me locate it for you."

      --
      "There ought to be limits to freedom." -George W. Bush
  4. That thing looks like all of my nightmares. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You could put it in a horror movie and make it pulsate.

  5. Poorly-defined problem by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What are they trying to do, make up some 3D fractal that just looks like the mandelbrot? This mandelbulb seems pretty arbitrary, and the whole point of the story seems to be that they've found a good one, not that they've found any kind of "true" solution.

  6. Looks like a big sea slug. by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if we'll ever reach the point where we will be able to define, with equations and rules, a sea slug using the principles of cellular automata?

    1. Re:Looks like a big sea slug. by Artifakt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Remember the film, Jurassic Park? They applied some simple math to make flocking behavior in their dino models look realistic. It works - just about everybody says the dinosaur flocking looks just like real flocking. Of course real biologists who have been trying to find the math behind real flocking have tested those equations the film makers used, and found some trivial little problem like you need to have faster than light telepathic communication between animal brains if you don't want the animals to get into a ridiculous gridlock once you add in some real environment modeling, but it sure looks like it's real flocking.
            And I'm sure we'll get paramecium models or mitochondrion models, or whatever, which 'look just like' the real thing, but turn out to be built on math that has fundamental problems with the rest of reality and uses some cheap hack like omitting surface roughness or gravity to gloss over that part, many times before anyone gets an actual model. We'll see 'accurate' models of atomic nuclei that build all 13 stable elements (or all 1047). 'Accurate' models of natural selection that show only plants should evolve eyes will follow. Eventually, your sea slug will act just like a real one does when the liquid it swims in is molten Sodium, (but not, unfortunately, in water).
            People will probably work some or most of these out. Accurate computer modeling of some events has happened, and many more will probably happen with advances in technology. Claiming that all of them will definitely work makes about as much sense as claiming all computer based aircraft models can safely skip the wind tunnel test stage of development.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  7. Flashback by Tx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Weird, I definitely saw that thing after taking acid once, in fact I floated though it for quite a while. It may look all pretty on your screen, but that shit put me off drugs for life, man.

    --
    Oh no... it's the future.
  8. Zooming by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's a 7500x7500 (56 megapixel) image of the fractal: http://seadragon.com/view/fnr.

    --
    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  9. Slashdotted by Kaladis+Nefarian · · Score: 5, Informative
    --
    * Several monkeys are here, playing banjos and wearing small hats.
  10. Re:Now do 4d and animate it! by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, Bob Howard at the Laundry already confirmed this one was ok. However, this is perilously close to the Turing-Lovecraft theorem which the public isn't supposed to know ab n34pnt!@!$ *NO CARRIER*

  11. A sad day indeed... by symbolset · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If that's the case, it's been a sad day since at least 1984. These things teach us interesting things about numbers and are interesting in and of themselves. As a way of making math more visually beautiful they also serve to draw the interest of youth to a field ordinarily seen as dry and boring.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  12. w00t by lycium · · Score: 5, Informative

    cool, nice to see my images linked on slashdot :) hopefully we'll have some gpu-accelerated results to show you all soon (and for those with opencl supporting cards, executables).

    btw interested parties might like to check out my 3840x2400 resolution render of the 7th degree version here: http://lyc.deviantart.com/art/siebenfach-139038934 (it's buried deep in the thread, and fractalforums is creeking a bit)

  13. Re:All I see is a big white rectangle by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 5, Funny

    With a message saying Page cannot be displayed. Not that impressive.

    Did you try zooming in?

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  14. a great leap forward by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    for scientific screensaverology

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  15. Fraqtive by nephridium · · Score: 5, Informative

    A very nice open source app, available through the Ubuntu/Debian repositories. The author's page even got a windows version.

    It supports multi-core CPUs, i.e. if you really want to tax each of your CPU's core to the limit, just use the app to browse through the mandelbrot set. It also supports a 3D extrapolation of the 2D set (OpenGL and software).

    Strangely enough it doesn't seem all that popular, as the forum doesn't seem all that populated..

    --


    And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
  16. Re:All I see is a big white rectangle by The+Dark · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did you try zooming in?

    It's 404s all the way down.

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    sig's not here
  17. Animated quaternion by _bernie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The common Mandelbrot set is really a 2-dimensional slice of a 4-dimensional object identified by both the combination of the complex numbers Z0 and C in the canonical Zn+1 = Zn^2 + C. The mandelbrot set lives in the plane where Z0 = 0 + 0i, while the Julia sets live on infinitely-many-squared orthogonal planes in the remaining two dimensions, each one intersecting Mandelbrot's plane in a single point of complex coordinates C.

    Visualizing this hyperspace monster was made easy by POV-Ray. It took my computer two week of computation to render 80 seconds of animated 3D slices of a the quaternion. Check out the scene source.

    /me looks forward for a real-time Julia4D explorer.

    --
    Bernie Innocenti - http://codewiz.org/
  18. Re:Elder feuds reignited? by Bill+Currie · · Score: 5, Funny

    *Burp*

    And tasty they were, too.

    --

    Bill - aka taniwha
    --
    Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak