Note: This post assumes you've heard of the Mandelbrot set before, and you want to know more about it, but that you find imaginary and complex numbers (e.g. the square root of negative one) a bit mystifying and counterintuitive. Instead of helping you understand the relevant math like a reasonable person would, I'm just going to pretend the concept doesn't exist, and try to explain how to generate the Mandelbrot set anyway.

My goal is for this post to (theoretically) be acceptable to the historical René Descartes, who coined the term "Imaginary number" because he did not believe such things could possibly exist.

I hereby formally invite you to a dance.

Pretty please with a cherry on top??

Since we're (presumably) both cool, hip people, let's go with a somewhat avant-garde dance that's popular with the kids these days.

I call this dance the Mandelbrot Waltz, but you can call [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
January 17th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CMiDbAyroRG7kLJNW/an-introduction-to-the-mandelbrot-set-that-doesn-t-mention

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“An Introduction To The Mandelbrot Set That Doesn’t Mention Complex Numbers” by Yitz

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“An Introduction To The Mandelbrot Set That Doesn’t Mention Complex Numbers” by Yitz