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Fractal-odometer
"The closer you stand to the window, the more of the garden you see-eth" | |
Fractals have, in theory, infinite complexity. The more you magnify the image, the more detail you can perceive. Applying this concept to car odometers, design an dial that displays more information as you look at it more closely. Thus, a cursory glance reveals how far you have travelled in kilometres
(or miles, if you prefer) only. Closer examination gives the distance accurate to metres (or yards), then any combination of centimetres, millimetres, micrometres, nanometres, or even smaller increments as desired.
This concept's title was inspired by [senatorjam]'s Fractodometer.
Try deciphering this...
http://math.ucsd.edu/funfacts/fractals/
[vigilante, Oct 04 2004]
fractals - the closer you zoom, the pattern remains the same
http://www.bath.ac....actals/what_are.htm
... well, thats my understanding anyway. [po, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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Rats, I thought it was going to be an unhelpful and distracting display of psychedelically rendered equations on the dashboard. |
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Unfortunately not. However, feel free to develop Fractal Driving Goggles to suit this purpose - spectacles with lenses composed of soap bubbles, for an ever-changing, swirling display of colours. I think that should just about fit the bill, [snarfyguy]. |
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I think that anything that encourages you to move your head closer and closer to the dashboard while driving is probably a bad idea. Although it would make driving an amusingly deadly game of chance. |
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Requirement: Device that relays information with precision being a function of distance between observer and device. |
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Simple solution: Physical bar extending and retracting, with the length indicating speed. Ruler placed adjacent to bar can be used to measure bar to varying precision based on observer's position. |
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<offtopic> Fractals are just this and so much more. Self similarity across scale is just one facet of the nature of non linear dynamics. [po]'s link contains a quote on the first line attributed to James Gleick who wrote 'Chaos'. If you are interested and don't know the subject it is a great place to start.</offtopic> |
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hmm, thank you gnome - sorta what I meant.. |
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My apologies [po], I didn't mean to assume or anything. I just get a bee in my bonnet about the 'makes a really good T-shirt' aspect. I am a lay-reader on the subject so might be a bit too enthusiastic.
Having said that, all this is off topic since I guess as the idea was for fractions.
calculate the fractal dimension of the travel path - that's a number we need to know. |
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