Scratch

In math, there is something called Fractals. A fractal is a pattern that keeps repeating itself but gets smaller and smaller.
For instance- There is a tree. There are three boughs (big limbs) sticking out of the trunk. Then on each bough, there are three smaller limbs sticking off of each one. Then on each limb, there are big branches sticking off of each one. Then on each branch, there are three sticks sticking out of each one. Then on each branch, there are three twigs sticking off of each one. Then on the twigs, there is a leaf, and on that leaf, if you look very closely, there is a line going across it with lines sticking out of it. This is an example of a fractal.
Please reply if you don't understand what a fractal is.
Fractals are used in lots of animation in movies and other things.
For instance, in a Star Wars movie, there are two people fighting over a whole bunch of lava. That lava is simply one sprite moving up that changes colors to red and orange that leaves a trail to form a cane, but it uses a Fractal pattern when it leaves a trail and it spreads out to look realistic so it looks a lot like real lava. Fractals are also used to animate mountains.
Fractals have even effected our clothing; lots of clothes have fractal designs on them.
Just in case you're wondering why a sixth grader knows all this, I watched a Nova program about this last night. I watch them all the time; They are very interesting and I learn a lot about them. Fellow Scratchers should watch them, too.
My point is, even though fractals is a college level of math and lots of people here, like me, are only in middle school and high school and even elementary school, Scratchers could use Fractals to make cool projects. Not only could we make more a variety of projects, but using Fractals could save a lot of time on making projects since it is a repeating pattern and you wouldn't have to repeat making a certain script instead of just having it repeat the Fractal pattern.
Here is a link to a Wikipedia article on Fractals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal
If you don't understand this, you should go to that article I posted the link to. If you still don't understand it, well, maybe you're just not ready to understand this kind of stuff.
Scratchers, please reply to this and tell me what you think about this idea.
Thanks for reading this forum entry!
Also, here is a link to a project I made that is an example of a fractal. http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/g8rghr/318178  and here is a link to my fractal gallery.  http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/33129

Here is a link to the Nova website in the section that has stuff about fractals. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/programs/

Also, if you ask me how to use fractals in your scripts or how to create a fractal pattern with your scripts, I don't know how. I might be pretty good at scripting, but I'm not really an expert; I'm really still learning how to script, just I have all of the basics on scripting and i know a little bit of advanced scripting. I just know that you can, and it can be very useful in scripting. Maybe someone who does know how to use them could reply to this and tell us how.

Last edited by g8rghr (2009-05-06 13:39:27)