Does Chaos Mathematics Explain the Universe as a Fractal?

[nlc315]

As far as I can tell from my current knowledge of chaos mathematics (which is basic), a fractal is basically an image that constantly repeates itself. As a crude explaination, it's a picture, and if you were to zoom in on any one piece of it, the zoomed image would be the same as the original.

I find this an interesting concept, and I wonder if the universe is merely a big fractal? As a perhaps poor example, on the microscopic scale, the model of the atom shows electrons revolving around the center nucleous...and in the macroscopic view of the solar system, planets revolve around the sun.

Billions of cells make up the human body...perhaps the sum of all human beings on the planet make up some macroscopic organism or something? Imagine your individual cells as being like people...they have good/bad poker days, lol, and personal problems just like the rest of us. I'm stretching this obviously...but view the idea as a whole with an open mind. I saw one three dimensional fractal model called a "spherical fractal" which involved a sphere of radius 1, then having 9 sphere's attached evenly and symetrically around that sphere with their own radii being 1/3, and so on and so forth. The calculated surface area of this sphere is infinite... Like the expanding universe?

My second question is concerning some laws of physics. This was the topic of a really great PBS Nova called "the elegant universe" narrated by Brian Greene, a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia. Currently, and again, from my small scope of understanding, it seems we've got 2 sets of laws. One for big things (relativity), and one for small things (quantum mechanics). The question posed is, what do we do when we have something that falls under both of those categories? For example, a black hole...it's very massive...more than our Sun for sure...but yet, it's been compressed into something REALLY small. It's gravitational force is so great, as I'm sure everyone knows, light itself cannont escape. What if we compared this to the strong force inside the nucleous of the atom? By that I mean this isn't a gravitational force any longer...in effect it's the strong force equal to that inside the atom. Basically, from the perspective of this "the universe is a fractal" idea, a black hole becomes like some really dense nucleous of an atom?

[HeavilyArmed]

You have posed a multiple bong question here. If I start smoking again I'll get right on it.

[AWoodside]

Sloppy sloppy sloppy.

[arahant]

No.

[John21]

David Bohm presented something similiar to what you're saying with you're first question. Wiki - David Bohm - Wholeness and Implicate Order

Excerpt:
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"Bohm employed the hologram as a means of characterising implicate order, noting that each region of a photographic plate in which a hologram is observable contains within it the whole three-dimensional image, which can be viewed from a range of perspectives. That is, each region contains a whole and undivided image. In Bohm’s words: "There is the germ of a new notion of order here. This order is not to be understood solely in terms of a regular arrangement of objects (eg., in rows) or as a regular arrangement of events (e.g. in a series). Rather, a total order is contained, in some implicit sense, in each region of space and time. Now, the word 'implicit' is based on the verb 'to implicate'. This means 'to fold inward' ... so we may be led to explore the notion that in some sense each region contains a total structure 'enfolded' within it". (Bohm, 1980, p. 149)."

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And the Holographic Principle could extend into your next question.
Wiki - Holographic Principle

Excerpt:
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Given any finite, compact region of space (e.g. a sphere), this region will contain matter and energy within it. If this energy surpasses a critical density then the region collapses into a black hole.

A black hole is known theoretically to have an entropy[1] which is directly proportional to the surface area of its event horizon. Black holes are maximal entropy objects [2], so the entropy contained in a given region of space cannot be larger than the entropy of the largest black hole which can fit in that volume. This limit is known as the Bekenstein bound.

A black hole's event horizon encloses a volume, and more massive black holes have larger event horizons and enclose larger volumes. The most massive black hole that can fit in a given region is the one whose event horizon corresponds exactly to the boundary of the given region.

If entropy of ordinary mass (not just black holes) is also proportional to area, then this implies that volume itself is somehow illusory: that mass occupies area, not volume, and so the universe is really a hologram which is isomorphic to the information "inscribed" on its boundaries [3].

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