File:Mandelbrot Creation Animation.gif

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Mandelbrot_Creation_Animation.gif(600 × 600 pixels, file size: 1.78 MB, MIME type: image/gif, looped, 20 frames, 20 s)



An animated diagram showing iterations of the equation used to generate the Mandelbrot set, a fractal first studied by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1979. The animation shows the values of Z for first 20 iterations of the equation

where c is a complex variable.

Mandelbrot set graphics are usually generated using the so-called "escape algorithm", where color is assigned according to the number of iterations it took for the equation to diverge past a pre-set limit, and black color is used for regions that never diverge. This, however, is a plot of a much simpler quantity: the actual values of the equation at the first 20 iterations. Every pixel in the image corresponds to a different value of a complex constant c ranging from -2.2 to 1 on the real axis (horizontal) and from -1.2i to 1.2i on the imaginary axis (vertical). Z is initialized to 0. At each iteration, the next value of Z is calculated using the equation above.

This graphic was generated with 13 lines of code in the R language (see below for the code). For each point, the magnitude (aka absolute value) of Z is calculated, than scaled using an exponential function to emphasize fine detail, and finally mapped to color palette (jetColors). Dark red is a very low number, dark blue is a very high number. The deep blue region "squeezing" in the boundaries of the fractal is the region where Z value diverges to infinity.

Source Own work
Author Jarekt
Other versions

Mandelbrot Creation Animation (800x600).gifMandelbrot Creation Animation (800x600).gif

GIF development
R logo.svg
This chart was created with R.


jet.colors = colorRampPalette(c("#00007F", "blue", "#007FFF", "cyan", "#7FFF7F", "yellow", "#FF7F00", "red", "#7F0000")) 
m = 600
C = matrix(C,m,m)
Z = 0 
for (k in 1:20) { 
  Z = Z^2+C 
write.gif(X, "Mandelbrot.gif", col=jet.colors, delay=100)


Jarekt, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following licenses:
w:en:Creative Commons

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Attribution: Jarekt
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File history


current18:32, 13 June 2007Thumbnail for version as of 18:32, 13 June 2007600 × 600 (1.78 MB)Jarekt (talk | contribs){{Information |Description=Animation GIF file showing iteration of creating Mandelbrot set image |Source=self-made |Date=06/13/2007 |Author= Jarekt }} Image generated using R language and executing the following code: library(caTools) jet
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