Instructions:

This program was originally written in C, I have converted it from the original found in the book "Fractal Programming in 'C'" copyright 1989 M&T Publishing inc. by Roger T. Stevens. When I used to run this program on my old 10mhz 8088 it took about 10 minutes to render one picture. On my 700 mhz Pheonix board Pentium II it takes about 10 seconds, and that's through the JAVA interpreter. I was impressed.

You may explore the Mandelbrot set by clicking once anywhere on the picture. Move your mouse any distance, and click again. The section within the highlighted rectangle will zoom in to fill the screen. You may do this as many times as you like, however eventually you will reach the limit of the precision of the double type variable, and get just straight lines. If you don't understand what I am saying try zooming in about 20 or 30 times.

Practically speaking the colors represent the speed at which a certain equation tends toward infinity (blows up) or remains stable. The equation:
Z[n+1] = Z[n]^2 + C is shown plotted in the complex plane.
I like it because it is quite simple, elegant, and self similar. At certain levels you can make out spirals, , squares, circles, and of course other sets.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! I'll see you in the movies!

Copyright c Brian Vogl September 13 - 14 2000.