Koch curve
The
Koch curve is a
mathematical curve, and one of the earliest
fractal curves to have been described. It appeared in a
1906 paper entitled
"Une méthode géométrique élémentaire pour l'étude de certaines questions de la théorie des courbes plane" by the Swedish mathematician
Helge von Koch [1]. The better known
Koch snowflake (or
Koch star) is the same as the curve, except it starts with an
equilateral triangle (instead of a
line segment). Eric Haines has developed the
sphereflake fractal, a three-
dimensional version of the
snowflake.
One can imagine that it was created by starting with a line segment, then recursively altering each line segment as follows:
- divide the line segment into three segments of equal length.
- draw an equilateral triangle that has the middle segment from step one as its base.
- remove the line segment that is the base of the triangle from step 2.
After doing this once the result should be a shape similar to a cross section of a witch's hat.
The Koch curve is the limit approached as the above steps are followed over and over again.
The Koch curve has infinite length because each time the steps above are performed on each line segment of the figure its length increases by one third.
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