# Why is there a Mandelbrot set on Google this morning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 3, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318 "2004-02-03T14:12:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/1 "2004-02-03T14:12:19Z")
Is today Mandelbrot’s birthday or something? Why is there a mandelbrot set on the google front page…and all sorts of equations etc…etc…? ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/2 "2004-02-03T14:15:42Z")
I don’t know. But, if you click on the actual image itself, it does a google image search on “Gaston Julia”, which I then popped into google and came up with [this](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Gaston+Julia). It seems that Gaston Julia’s birthday is today. ---
**Author:** ![lovelyluka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@lovelyluka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lovelyluka)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/3 "2004-02-03T14:47:00Z")
I wondered the same thing. Apparently the guy studied fractals before computers could draw them. But on to the real question: Why do the folks at Google care that it’s his birthday? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/4 "2004-02-03T14:48:47Z")
> [@lovelyluka](#): > > But on to the real question: Why do the folks at Google care that it’s his birthday? Computer nerds. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/5 "2004-02-03T14:49:14Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > Computer nerds. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/6 "2004-02-03T14:50:40Z")
And here I thought you were talking about the Jewish almond cookies, and I got all excited. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/7 "2004-02-03T14:51:26Z")
Presumably this is the guy they named Julia sets after? I believe Julia sets are a subset of Mandelbrot sets, but IANAM. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/8 "2004-02-03T16:32:30Z")
> [@One And Only Wanderers](#): > > Presumably this is the guy they named Julia sets after? I believe Julia sets are a subset of Mandelbrot sets, but IANAM. Subset isn’t quite the right word. My understanding is that Julia sets can be generated from Mandelbrot sets, but this is not an area that I’m really familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/9 "2004-02-03T16:50:13Z")
IIRC - there is a Julia set for each point in the Mandelbrot diagram. The ones inside the set are joined-up, the ones outside the set are broken-up (dusts). The Julia set at a point resembles the Mandelbrot pattern at that point. Fractint\* (dammit where did I put it?) lets you toggle between the two. \*has anyone here _not got_ Fractint? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/10 "2004-02-03T16:59:11Z")
OK, I got it backwards. The points in the Mandelbrot set are the points whose Julia sets are “nice”. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/11 "2004-02-03T17:12:05Z")
That needs a bit more explanation, doesn’t it? For each complex number c, there is a corresponding Julia set J©. The Mandelbrot set M is the set of points whose corresponding Julia set is connected. A set is connected if you can pick any two points in that set and connect them with a curve that’s entirely inside the set. So 0 is connected, but i is not. Is that clear? ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/12 "2004-02-03T18:17:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Is that clear Sure. Oh, what was that middle part again? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/13 "2004-02-04T00:08:28Z")
By the way, they [have done this](http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html) for a variety of holidays and birthdays. I don’t know how they decide whose birthdays are worthy, but there you go. The 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ first USA appearance is coming up. I wonder if they’ll do something for that. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/14 "2004-02-04T01:31:56Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > For each complex number c, there is a corresponding Julia set J(c). The Mandelbrot set M is the set of points whose corresponding Julia set is connected. To put it in terms of the images that we see, black points are points in the Mandelbrot set. The color of any point in the Mandelbrot map is the same as the color of the very center point in the corresponding Julia map. [This site lets you play around with it](http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/cgi-bin/expl.cgi). If you click on a black point, the Julia map that pops up will be black in the center. If a Julia map has a black center, it will have areas that are black, which are all connected. If not, it won’t. Some of the images you generate there will have a non-black center but black regions, but this is only because the number of iterations isn’t high enough. If it was taken to infinity, all the black areas would be taken over by color. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-a-mandelbrot-set-on-google-this-morning/227318/15 "2004-02-04T21:35:10Z")
> [@Eva Luna](#): > > And here I thought you were talking about the Jewish almond cookies, and I got all excited. That’s **Mondelbreight** , bubbemeintzeh. ;j