Frozen Drops Are Not Fractals, But They're Nice Too

I got an email about a fractal show in the new planetarium in the new science building at UAA, and given the sunshine, but icy streets and walkways, I decided to walk rather than bike over.  That probably was a mistake.

I guess it's too small to read, but it says "doors remain locked until show is over."  Some things you have to be on time for.   At 12:34, they were already started.  Two more disappointed souls showed up just after I did.


The day was beautiful and not too cold (around 0˚ C), so I thought I'd just go out looking for real life fractals. 

So I wandered back out of the building to see what I could find.






I sort of knew what fractals were, but I couldn't have given you a strict definition.  I checked when I got home.  This is from a website on fractals for kids.  Just about my level.  You can click on the links to see more explanation of what each of these three properties means. 

Fractal Properties
    Self-similarity
    Fractional dimension
    Formation by iteration

I thought I might find some fractals in the snow and ice all around, but it wasn't to be.  But what I saw was still nice.   I think this birch came closest to having fractal properties.

 But these frozen drops really got my attention.

There's a whole other world inside this drop, frozen on the end of the spruce needles.  I apologize for these pictures not being better.  I really needed a tripod so I could hold still enough.  But this is a large magnification from my pocket sized Canon Powershot.  It's like having a little microscope in your pocket, because you can take a picture and then enlarge it on the screen to see this world you couldn't see with the naked eye.

If you look closely you can see these are two different drops.

 

As you can see, it doesn't take much to keep me entertained.  It wasn't that long ago that most of humanity's entertainment came from observing nature.  

This was the ice that formed on the water in the gutter.