Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Fractals Get Some Attention
Many people involved in the design world have heard of visual fractals, but aren’t really sure what they are. A July article in The New York Times can help change that situation. Sabrina Imbler, reports on fractals found in some very special vegetables on July 8 (“Cauliflower and Chaos, Fractals in Every Floret,” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/science/cauliflower-fractals.html). Imbler’s work details research done to understand the fractal nature of cauliflower and extending the discussion of fractals from vegetables to architecture likely makes it easier to grasp some significant concepts. Most of us have seen cauliflower at some point so statements such as the following by Imbler make important ideas about fractals readily accessible: “And the cauliflowers they simulated and grew were simply not fractal enough. The patterns were visible only at two fractal scales, such as one spiral nested in another spiral. By contrast, a regular cauliflower often displays self-similarity in at least seven …
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