Blog > The fractal in Jurassic Park book

En the book Jurassic Park the increasingly complexity of the situation is illustrated with different iterations of a fractal. That fractal is the Dragon Curve; the mechanism to compose the fractal is quite simple:

1. being with just a line (iteración 0),
2. continue joining the line with itself, with a 90º rotation between them (iteration 1)
3. repeat the process joining the current figure with a copy, but this copy is mirrored at the joining point; again the join applies a 90º rotation as in previous step (iteration 2 and next)

The book shows different iterations, numbered from 1 to 7. But actual fractal construction requires more iterations than those labelled in the book: e.g. first iteration in the book is iteration 4 -starting from 0- in the Dragon Curve; in a similar way, iteration 4 in the book is actually iteration 14 in the fractal.

Besides the different in iterations numbers, there are transformations as rotations, changes in starting orientation, or inverted X or Y axis.

The iteration process can be tested in the next interactive demo. Also, find below links to the iterations as shown in the book.