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At 0834 AM 2/28/99 -0600, Sharon wrote
Good Morning Bob!
First, I wanted to let you know I received my herk's yesterday....they are lovely...and I am quite pleased with my purchase.

Second, regarding something you said on your Show Report. The section where you are talking about the Chaos Theory.. and you have the pic of the Mandelbrot set...am I understanding you correctly that that pic is actually a satellite view that happens to look like the Mandelbrot set??? Where is this area..Seahorse Canyon or whatever you said. Just wondering???

Sharon

Hi again Sharon,

Benoit B. Mandelbrot's set is a mathematical entity. Mandelbrot's set and the mathematics underlying it became a core tool and a symbol of fractal aka 'Chaos' theory, now a fairly well developed academic discipline used to characterize and describe complex natural processes varying from the weather to natural populations to turbulent flow. Many natural structures have fractal form and crystallized minerals are often striking and beautiful examples of 'frozen fractals'. As are the branches of trees and plants, the system of arteries and veins the blood in your body flows through, the course of riverbeds and the shorelines of bodies of water, and on and on.

Graphically exploring and rendering images of the Mandlebrot set and other 'pure' fractals is an ever popular hobby with computer enthusiasts that cuts across many interests and disciplines.

Seahorse Valley is a particularly aesthetic 'place' in 'fractal space' along the 'shoreline' deep within the Mandelbrot set where some of the 'structures' bear a marked resemblence to sea horses. Zillions upon zillions of them... There are countless web sites on the topic of fractals, some with free software that you can download and use to create, explore and enjoy the beauty of fractals. Years ago you had to be a programmer and it used to take a very expensive, butt-kicking computer to render fractal graphics, but fractal apps and personal PCs are now evolved to the point of being super-duper fractal explorers in the hands of even novice users.

If you want to learn more about Fractals there are some excellent books available. However, if you're into some immediate gratification, just drop the keyword 'fractal' or 'Mandelbrot set' into a search engine like Google and start surfing!

P.S. Thanks for your feedback on the Herkimer 'diamonds'. My pleasure, enjoy them.

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