Favorite Shape?

[RemyZee]

What's your favorite shape and why is it y our favorite shape? Mine is the spiral: because of this: "Unlike circles, which you can trace over and over and always end up in the same spot, spirals are ever-changing. They continue to loop outward as they progress, so you’ll never end up in the same spot no matter how long you follow one. Like the concepts of growth and expansion, spirals illustrate the inevitability of change."

 

[Jumpinbare]

I like blobs, like amoebas. They are ever-changing, yet still a blob.

 

[Misty Avich]

Star

 

[Misery]

This is the Mandelbrot fractal. I make fractal art, so naturally a lot of things I do involve this thing.

Like most fractals, this thing is infinite... choose any point and start zooming in, and you will find more stuff. Keep zooming in however far you want, there is always more. There are a lot of spirals contained within it, and spirals that are in fact made of other spirals. The further you zoom in though, the more computational power you need. It doesnt matter how amazing your PC is; you will eventually hit a limit where you just dont have enough power to keep going.

The weirdest thing about it to me is that the Mandelbrot also contains countless copies of itself in its structure. It doesnt take all that much exploration of the thing to find some of these.

By sacrificing goats under a blood moon- er, I mean, by using math, this thing can also be bent into endless other shapes, which can then also be explored. No, I dont understand how the math works. The nice thing is, you dont need to understand the math to make stuff with fractals (but if you do understand the math, you can use that to help). There are a lot of apps specifically used to make fractal art and explore them, and some of them focus strictly on this thing.

 

[Kisa the tea]

Hexagon is the bestagon

 

[Tom]

Good question. But as usual I can't decide.

 

[Crossbreed]

What's your favorite shape...?

My wife!

 

[Metalhead]

I’m in shape. Round is a shape, right?

 

[Shevek]

Ellipse, because I can draw any of them with paper, two pins, a loop of thread, and a pen. Other conic sections are preferred where appropriate. Gaudi's cathedrals have lots of them. I like bridges that are both elegant structurally, and aesthetically pleasing - arches and suspension bridges rather than box-beams or wasteful trusses. I have a whole book of cross-sections for aircraft wings. I also like wandering paths, but that is one shape I can't draw. I need reasons.

 

[RemyZee]

New comment on spiral: oh, and there is the thing about the galaxy.