FOTD -- August 20, 2007 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: At first glance, today's image from the good old Mandelbrot set appears to show just another midget in Seahorse Valley. And indeed it is a scene in Seahorse Valley. But why then does it take over 1-1/2 hours to calculate on the fastest P4-2000mhz machine, and over 5 hours on the slow old P-200mhz unit? The obvious reason is its magnitude, which is large enough to require arbitrary precision math. But why then is such a large magnitude needed when the midget appears to be one of a relatively small magnitude? The reason for this is that the Seahorse Valley in which today's scene lies is not the Seahorse Valley of the M-set itself, but the Seahorse Valley of a miniscule midget just beyond the tip of the main stem of the large midget on the main stem of the M-set. Perhaps the most unusual thing in today's image is the way the near total chaos of this general area of the M-set blends into a very smooth overall image. Only the remnant irregularities around the edges betray the true location of the scene. With all this in mind, I named the image "Deep on the Spike". I rated it at a 7, which seems fair enough. But the very slow calculation time of the image could be a real problem, so I strongly recommend visiting the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and viewing it there. I sent the finished image on ahead to Paul several hours ago, so it should be posted by now. A light but steady rain fell most all day Sunday here at Fractal Central. The area needs the rain, so I guess we can't complain. I spent the day indoors, checking old fractal formulas, (spelled formulae by the over-educated), while the fractal cats spent the day like cats usually do -- sleeping and eating. The next FOTD should appear in 24 hours. Until then, take care and vote for a fractal in the next election. It will probably do a better job of running things. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Deep_on_the_Spike { ; time=1:32:57.96-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=mandel passes=1 center-mag=-1.7903\ 364338969715554/7.7315068e-13/1.246083e+015/1/30/\ 3.8857805861880479e-016 params=0/0 float=y inside=0 maxiter=45000 bailout=4 logmap=2106 periodicity=10 colors=000M9gK9hH9iF9jD9kILjNXiRhhSddT`aTXZUTVUQSV\ MPVILWEIWBF`LPdUYfVWgWUhXSiXQjYOkZMl_Km_Io`GpaEqbC\ rbAsc8td6ue4ve3uc8ubDtaIt`Mt_RsZWsY`sXdkVhcUlWSpOR\ tSNsWKr_HrbEqfBqj8pm5ph7kc9fZAaUCXPESKFNFHIBIEJTFR\ cFZnF_iK`dPa_UbVYbRbcMgdHkeCpf7uf3yfHqfVifhabe_ZcZ\ VaYR_XNYWJVVFTUBRT7PS3NR0LQ4NS7OTAPVDRWGSYJTZMU`PW\ aSXcVYdYZf``gcaifbjickjdhkeelfbmf`ngYohVpiSqiQrjNs\ kKtlHulFvmCwn9wn7HR9YO8eM8kK7qI7pG7oJAkMAgPAfPAePA\ dOAcNAaMA_LAYKAWJAUIARHAPGANFBKEEIFGGHJDJMBKP9MS7N\ UCPVGRWKTYLU_LUaLUcLUeLUgLTiLSlJSnLQr7RvATuDVuFXtI\ ZtL`tNbsQdsTfrVhrYkr`lqbpqerphtpjvpktmkrklpilnfmld\ mibmg`leYhbWeZUbWR_TPXQNVNKSKINFGMDDI9BE59D37K9CQE\ HVJM_NR`PSaQSbRScSSdTSdUSeWSfXSgYShZSi_Si`Sf_Ud_Wb\ ZY`ZZZY`XYbVXdTXeRWgPWiNVkLWlJ_nHcpFgrDksBoo9sk7ug\ 5wc4x`9yYEzWJzUOzSTzPYzNbzLgzJbzSZz_UzhQzpMzxJzsGz\ nEziBzd8z_YzbWzcTzdRzePzf } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================