Surfaces, Nature, Fractals and Movies
- Ikigai Mathlabs
- Oct 11, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 12, 2020
A surface geometrically is a set of points/ locus of a line or a point that has length and breadth but no thickness. It has two degrees of freedom. Normally mathematicians look for plane surfaces or curved surfaces which are actually the locus of zeroes of an algebraic equation. Surfaces are two dimensional manifold which are the boundaries of three dimensional solids. For instance sphere is the boundary of a solid ball. Normally in our day to day lives we come across different surfaces such as plane surface (surface of a bread loaf), curved surfaces (outer surface of a pipe, tea cup and plate), combination of plane and curved surfaces (pipe or any cylindrical surface), fractal surfaces (surface of leaves, mountains, river streams etc).
Out of these shapes fractal surfaces are the most frequently occurring surfaces in our natural world. Fractal geometry is a separate discipline that deals with roughness and is an area of non platonic math. Plane and curved surfaces are mostly a derivation of our human mindsets that look for patterns/equations in a natural world which is actually trillions and trillions of random iterations. It is the ingenuity of human beings that has harnessed the powers of nature’s magic and use it for scientific and civilization progress. Fractal math has enabled us human beings to understand real world landscapes, natural habitats, shapes of living beings etc. We should thank mathematician Mr Mandelbrot for bringing the wonderful geometry of nature into our conscience. The algorithmic and platonic human being that looks for patterns thus is trying to understand the fractal geometry of nature. Mother nature fortunately or unfortunately works in a bottom up, decentralized and fractal manner.
Fun Trivia-: If you are a sci-fi and animation fan you must have heard about CGI and VFX technology being used in these films. The trend started with Star trek movies and has gained popularity ever since. Avengers saga, Marvel cinematic Universe, Ex Machina, Annihilation, Jungle book, Life of Pi, Lion King etc are some of the renowned movies that have used these techniques. Even SRK runs a production house Red Chilles entertainment that provides services for VFX technology. The technology is based on fractal geometrical shapes. Nowadays these shapes are automatically generated through softwares by animators to create futuristic cities, aliens, zombies etc.
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