Cork Coasters in the shape of Julia sets computed in Maple



From the 2021 Maple Conference Art Gallery
 

It was 2013. It started out because I needed some coasters and I wanted them to be math-y. I was also
excited about technologies that were (then) newly available to ordinary consumers like 3D printers. And
I was wondering if I could create something in Maple that I can 3D print. However, 3D printers at the
time could not print details smaller than 1 mm. The option that allowed for fine detailing was a laser
cutter available at a local maker space. Given the right material, it was better suited for making coasters
than a 3D printer anyway and I could look for 2D images. What got my attention was a beautiful
worksheet posted on the Maple Cloud showcasing different fractals and how fast Maple was at
computing them. (In Maple 18, released in 2014, they became part of Fractals:-EscapeTime package.)


It featured the Mandelbrot set and the Julia sets. For Julia sets you can adjust the parameters and see how
it changes. So I was able to find a shape that was just right. Maple offered conversion to .tiff and I used
GIMP to convert it to a path for the laser printer (as .svg). I used a cork sheet for the material. An
unexpected bonus came up when we lined up several Julia sets next to each other. We tried to put as
many as possible together and found that they kind of tile the sheet. The spaces between the Julia sets
look very much like the Julia sets but not exactly the same. Can you tell which one is the actual Julia?


Please Wait...