#zeroinfinite

[Image source]

What exactly is “redshift”? 

Redshift is defined as: 

a shifttoward longer wavelengths of the spectral lines emitted by a celestial object  that is caused by the object moving away from the earth.

If you can understand that, great! But for those of us who cannot, consider the celestial bodies which make up our night sky. Did you think they were still, adamant, everlasting constants? They may seem to stick around forever, but…

Boy, you were wrong. I’ll have you know that stars are born and, at some point, they die. They move, they change. Have you heard about variable stars? Stars undergo changes, sometimes in their luminosity. (We are, indeed, made of the same stuff as stars).

So, stars move. All celestial bodies do, actually. You might have heard about some mysterious, elusive thing called dark energy. Dark energy is thought to be the force that causes the universe to expand at a growing rate. If it is proven to exist, dark energy will be able to explain why redshift occurs.

Maybe you can understand redshift by studying a visual:

[Image source]

These are spectral lines from an object. What do you notice is different in the unshifted, “normal” emission lines from the redshifted and blueshifted lines?

The redshifted line is observed as if everything is “shifted” a bit to the right– towards the red end of the spectrum; whereas the blueshifted line is moved to the left towards the bluer end of the spectrum.

Imagine if you were standing here on earth and some many lightyears away, a hypothetical “alien” was standing on their planet. With this image in mind, consider a galaxy in between the two of you that is moving towards the alien. You would then observe redshift (stretched out wavelength) and the alien would observe blueshift (shortened wavelength). 

Here,Symmetry Magazine explains redshift in their “Explain it in 60 seconds” series. 

A simple, everyday example of this concept can be observed if you stand in front of a road. As a car (one without a silencer) drives by, the pitch you observe changes. This is known as the Doppler effect. Watch this quick youtube video titled “Example of Dopper Shift using car horn”: 

(You may not be able to view it from the dashboard, only by opening this post on the actual blog page. You can watch the video by clicking this link). 

Notice how as the car drives past the camera man, the sound changes drastically.

Understanding redshift is important to scientists, especially astronomers and astrophysicists. They must account for this observable difference to make the right conclusions. Redshift is one the concepts which helped scientists determine that celestial bodies are actually moving further away from us at an accelerating rate.

Fractal Geometry: An Artistic Side of Infinity

Fractal Geometry is beautiful. Clothes are designed from it and you can find fractal calendars for your house. There’s just something about that infinitely endless pattern that intrigues the eye– and brain. 

Fractals are “geometric shapes which can be split into parts which are a reduced-size copy of the whole” (source: wikipedia). They demonstrate a property called self-similarity, in which parts of the figure are similar to the greater picture. Theoretically, each fractal can be magnified and should be infinitely self-similar. 

One simple fractal which can easily display self-similarity is the Sierpinski Triangle. You can look at the creation of such a fractal:

What do you notice? Each triangle is self similar– they are all equilateral triangles. The side length is half of the original triangle. And what about the area? The area is a quarter of the original triangle. This pattern repeats again, and again. 

Two other famous fractals are the Koch Snowflake and the Mandelbrot Set. 

The Koch Snowflake looks like: 

 (source: wikipedia)

It is constructed by going in 1/3 of the of the side of an equilateral triangle and creating another equilateral triangle. You can determine the area of a Koch Snowflake by following this link.

The Mandelbrot set…

… is:

the set of values of c in the complex plane for which the orbit of 0 under iteration of the complex quadratic polynomial z_n+1 = z_n² + c remains bounded. (source: wikipedia)

It is a popular fractal named after Benoît Mandelbrot. More on creating a Mandelbrot set is found here, as well as additional information. 

You can create your own fractals with this fractal generator. 

But what makes fractals extraordinary?

Fractals are not simply theoretical creations. They exist aspatterns in nature! Forests can model them, so can clouds and interstellar gas! 

Artists are fascinated by them, as well. Consider The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai: 

Even graphic artists use fractals to create mountains or ocean waves. You can watch Nova’s episode of Hunting the Hidden Dimensionfor more information.