Open Letter to Borut L.
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg26463] Open Letter to Borut L.
- From: Ken Levasseur <Kenneth_Levasseur at uml.edu>
- Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 22:46:47 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I wrote this to Borut L, who recently posted a message on Mathgroup, but it kicked back to me because of a bad address. So I'm posting this so that he might get it. The message also applies to anyone else who may be interested in math mentoring. Ken Levasseur Ken Levasseur wrote: > Borut: > > Your response to Alan is well written. It immediately brought to mind the > search that I'm involved in for on-line mentors in a program called Making > Mathematics ( http://www2.edc.org/makingmath/). We're looking for people who > enjoy helping students explore mathematics. In fact one of the research > project we have on the site, Inspi, is based on turtle graphics. Check out the > site and if you're interested in applying as a mentor, you'd be welcome. > > Ken Levasseur > EDC/UMass Lowell > > PS: You don't identify yourself as a grad or undergrad student. Although we've > been looking for grads and postgrads, I don't think we have a rule set in stone > about who can apply as a mentor. > > > > I am a beginner in Mathematica and need to know how to generate a Koch > > > snowflake fractal. Please help. > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Alan > > > > Hi Alan, > > > > An intuitive approach, imitating 'logo turtle graphics', is very convinient > > for rather simplex, yet creative fractal graphics. > > It goes like this: > > You start by drawing a straight line in a specific direction. You are > > drawing it until you bump into a rule, a rule that order you to change > > direction. After rotating for a specific angle, you continue drawing a > > straight line in that direction. And so on... > > > > For Koch's curve this approach would look like this: > > > > initial route: > > F+F--F+F > > > > where F meand 'forward', i.e. drawing a straight unit line and +/- means > > 'rotating for Pi/3' in positive/negative direction. > > > > Now, n-th order Koch's curve will be an initial route, recursively gotten by > > applying the > > > > rule: > > F -> F+F--F+F > > > > Since you say you are a begginer in Mathematica, it might not be obvious for > > you at the start to implement this in Mathematica. But afterall, aren't the > > new things those from which we learn? > > > > bye, > > > > Borut Levart > > a physics student