分形几何Fractal Geometry(Ch1).ppt

Very roughly, a dimension provides a description of how much space a set fills. It is a measure of the prominence of the irregularities of a set when viewed at very small scales. When we refer to a set F as a fractal, therefore, we will typically have the following in mind. (i) F has a fine structure, i.e. detail on arbitrarily small scales. (ii) F is too irregular to be described in traditional geometrical language, both locally and globally. (iii) Often F has some form of self-similarity, perhaps approximate or statistical. (iv) Usually, the ‘fractal dimension’ of F (defined in some way) is greater than its topological dimension. (v) In most cases of interest F is defined in a very simple way, perhaps recursively. Three von Koch curves fitter together to form a snowflake curve The von Koch curve has features in many ways similar to those listed for the middle third Cantor set. It is made up of four ‘quarters’ each similar to the whole, but scaled by a factor 1/3. The fine structure is reflected in the irregularities at all scales; nevertheless, this intricate structure stems from a basically simple construction. Whilst it is reasonable to call F a curve, it is much too irregular to have tangents in the classical sense. A simple calculation shows that E k is of length (4/3) k; letting k tend to infinity implies that F has infinite length. On the other hand, F occupies zero area in the plane, so neither length nor area provides a very useful description of the size of F. The Koch Island Infinite circumference but finite area Many other sets may be constructed using such recursive procedures. For example, the Sierpinski triangle or gasket is obtained by repeatedly removing (inverted) equilateral triangles from an initial equilateral triangle of unit side-length; see fig