Multimedia Gallery - Fractals help mathematicians understand how wind moves oceanographic sensors in an eddy.

$Creating a fractal to understand how wind moves oceanographic sensors in an eddy$ Download this image.

June 29, 2016

Fractals help mathematicians understand how wind moves oceanographic sensors in an eddy.

An NSF mathematician created this fractal to better understand how wind would move oceanographic sensors in an eddy. This is just a snapshot in time, but wind would push the sensors back and forth, making it uncertain where they might go. Because of the stochastic nature -- a kind of organized randomness -- this fractal helps visualize the scenario and come up with an optimal, control so sensors use as little battery as possible and minimize displacement.

Credit: Lora Billings

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