This intricate object is a Mandelbulb. No, not a piece of hyperbolic crochet but possibly the most accurate three-dimensional representation yet of the famous fractal Mandelbrot set.
From fern leaves to broccoli, fractal shapes are ubiquitous in nature and can also be generated by mathematical formulas applied iteratively to produce elaborate “self-similar” patterns. The 2D Mandelbrot set is a set of points in the complex plane, a mathematical space where ordinary numbers run from “east” to “west” and “imaginary” numbers, based on the square root of -1, run from “south” to “north”. In this space, multiplying a number rotates the…
