MATHS

INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT

Guided by: Maruti Patil Sir

Submitted by: Sanika Thombre
 YAK EDUCATION TRUST’S
YAK PUBLIC SCHOOL

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Sanika Madhav Thombre, a student of

class XII has successfully completed the research project on the
topic “Fractals and their mathematical properties” under the
guidance of Mr. Maruti Patil Sir. This project is genuine and
does not indulge in plagiarism of any kind. The references taken
in making this project have been declared at the end of the
project.

Signature of Examiner Signature of Teacher

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to thank our Maths teacher

Mr.Maruti Patil sir who guided us in doing these projects. He
provided us with invaluable advice and helped us in difficult
periods. His motivation and help contributed tremendously to
the successful completion of the project.
Besides, we would like to thank all the teachers who helped us
by giving us advice and providing the equipment which we
needed.
Also, I would like to thank my family and friends for their
support. Without that support we couldn’t have succeeded in
completing this project.
At last, but not in least, we would like to thank everyone who
helped and motivated us to work on this project.
 INTRODUCTION

What is a Fractal?
Fractal patterns, like many other concepts of mathematics,
are full of paradoxes. A source of creativity and beauty, a
fractal structure can also be a powerful tool to analyze and
communicate complex ideas.In mathematics, this property of
an object is called self-similarity. Shapes that exhibit
self-similarity are known as fractals. Fractal patterns are
deemed as the most beautiful and exquisite structures
produced by nature and are present all around us. We have
an abundance of fractal geometry in nature like hurricanes,
trees, mountains, rivers, seashells, coastlines, the edge of a
snowflake, and many others.These images could look very
complex at first glance but if you take a closer look, both of
these objects of nature follow a rather simple pattern. Each
individual part of the plant looks exactly similar to one
another and to the entire plant, just smaller in size. The
same pattern is repeated all over at smaller scales.
There are many intricate plants and parts
in nature like the ones shown below:
What are some examples of fractals?
Some examples of fractals are the Koch snowflake, the box
fractal, and the Sierpinski triangle. Some famous fractal images
include the Julia set, the Mandelbrot set, and Cantor dusts.
FRACTAL TERMINOLOGY
Self-similar
All fractals show a degree of self-similarity. This means that as you

look closer and closer into the details of a fractal, you can see a replica

of the whole.

A fern is a classic example. Look at the entire frond. See the branches

coming out from the main stem? Each of those branches looks similar

to the entire frond. They are self-similar to the original, just on a

smaller scale.

These self-similar patterns are the result of a simple equation or

mathematical statement. You create fractals by repeating this equation

through a feedback loop in a process called iteration, where the results

of one iteration form the input value for the next.

For example, if you look at the interior of a nautilus shell, you'll see that

each chamber of the shell is basically a carbon copy of the preceding

chamber, just smaller as you trace them from the exterior to the

interior.

These patterns often have fractal dimensions that are not whole

numbers, such as 1.5, 2.7, or 2.99. This reflects their space-filling and

self-replicating nature.
Recursive
Fractals are also recursive, regardless of scale. Ever go into a

store's dressing room and find yourself surrounded by mirrors?

For better or worse, you're looking at an infinitely recursive image

of yourself.

Fractal Dimensions
Finally, a note about geometry. Most of us grew up being taught

that length, width and height are the three dimensions, and that's

that.

Fractal geometry throws this concept a curve by creating irregular

shapes in fractal dimension; the fractal dimension of a shape is a

way of measuring that shape's complexity.

Now take all of that, and we can plainly see that a pure fractal is a

geometric shape that is self-similar through infinite iterations in a

recursive pattern and through infinite detail. Simple, right? Don't

worry, we'll go over all the pieces soon enough.

MATHEMATICAL EXPLORATIONS

Mathematicians eventually got in on the act as well. Gaston Julia devised

the idea of using a feedback loop to produce a repeating pattern in the early

20th century. Georg Cantor experimented with properties of recursive and

self-similar sets in the 1880s, and in 1904, Helge von Koch published the

concept of an infinite curve, using approximately the same technique but

with a continuous line.

And of course, we've already mentioned Lewis Richardson exploring

Koch's idea while trying to measure English coastlines.

These explorations into such complex mathematics were mostly

theoretical, however. Lacking at the time was a machine capable of

performing the grunt work of so many mathematical calculations in a

reasonable amount of time to find out where these ideas really led. As the

power of computers evolved, so too did the ability of mathematicians to

test these theories.

MATH BEHIND THE BEAUTY

We think of mountains and other objects in the real world as having three dimensions.
In Euclidean geometry, we assign values to an object's length, height and width, and
we calculate attributes like area, volume and circumference based on those values. But
most objects are not uniform; mountains, for example, have jagged edges.

Fractal geometry enables us to more accurately define and measure the complexity of a
shape by quantifying how rough its surface is. You can express the jagged edges of that
mountain mathematically.

Enter the fractal dimension, which by definition is larger than or equal to an object's
Euclidean (or topological) dimension (D => DT).

A relatively simple way for measuring this is called the box-counting (or
Minkowski-Bouligand Dimension) method. To try it, place a fractal on a piece of grid
paper. The larger the fractal and more detailed the grid paper, the more accurate the
dimension calculation will be.

D = log N / log (1/h)

In this formula, D is the dimension, N is the number of grid boxes that contain some
part of the fractal inside, and h is the number of grid blocks the fractal spans on the
graph paper. However, while this method is simple and approachable, it's not always
the most accurate.

One of the more standard methods to measure fractals is to use the Hausdorff
Dimension, which is D = log N / log s, where N is the number of parts a fractal produces
from each segment, and s is the size of each new part compared to the original
segment.

It looks simple, but depending on the fractal, this can get complicated pretty quickly.
Chaos Theory
You can produce an infinite variety of fractals just by changing a few of

the initial conditions of an equation; this is where chaos theory comes

in.

On the surface, chaos theory sounds like something completely

unpredictable, but fractal geometry is about finding the order in what

initially appears to be chaotic. Start counting the multitude of ways

you can change those initial equation conditions and you'll quickly

understand why there are an infinite number of fractals.

You won't be cleaning the floor with the Menger Sponge though, so

what good are fractals anyway?

Famous Fractals and Their Types

Some fractals start with a basic line segment or structure and add to it.

That's how you make a dragon curve. Others are reductive, beginning

as a solid shape and repeatedly subtracting from it. The Sierpinski

Triangle and Menger Sponge are both in that group.

More chaotic fractals form a third group, created using relatively

simple formulas and graphing them millions of times on a Cartesian

Grid or complex plane. The Mandelbrot set is the rock star in this

group, but Strange Attractors are pretty cool, too. These images are all

expressions of mathematical formulas.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN
FRACTAL?

Take a blank sheet of paper, and draw a straight line from the center to

the bottom. Now draw two lines, half as long as the first, coming out at

45-degree angles up from the top of the first line, forming a Y. Do that

again for each fork in the Y.

That's the first iteration in your fractal. Keep doing this with each

fork.

By the third or fourth iteration, you'll begin to realize why fractal

geometry wasn't developed before the computer age. Congratulations

— you just made a fractal canopy! Mix it up by modifying the initial

lines slightly (or a lot) and see what happens.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Science.howstuffworks.com
www.vedantu.com
www.wikipedia.com
THANKYOU