Fractals Project

The Koch Snowake is an example of a fractal. It is constructed in the following way: You start with an equilateral triangle. You then remove the inner third of each side, and build another equilateral triangle at the location where the side was removed. You then repeat the process indenitely. In the picture below, the rst four stages in the construction of the Koch Snowake are shown.

Part 1: What is the perimeter of the Koch Snowake?

To investigate this question lets suppose that the length of the base of the equilateral triangle you start with is 1. 1. What is the perimeter of the rst stage in the construction of the Koch Snowake? The second stage? The third stage? 2. What is the perimeter of the nth stage? 3. The Koch Snowake is the object you get when you continue the construction forever. What is the perimeter of the Koch Snowake? Please discuss your results. (Dont just give a numerical answer.)

Part 2: What is the area of the Koch Snowake?

Suppose the area of the equilateral triangle in stage 1 is A. 1. How much area is being added in the second stage? 2. How much area is being added in the third stage? 3. How are the two areas from (1) and (2) related? 4. How much area is being added in the nth stage? 5. Write a series that expresses the area of the nth stage. 6. What is the area of the Koch Snowake?

Project Assignment:
Make a poster or write an article addressing the following questions at a minimum. What is a fractal? What is the Koch Snowake? What is the perimeter of the Koch Snowake? What is the area of the Koch Snowake? Invent your own fractal. You are encouraged to be creative and to investigate aspects of fractals in other ways: e.g. use Geometers Sketchpad or other computer applications to create them. Find out about applications of fractals or about the history of fractals. Imagine that your audience knows some calculus but does not know much about fractals or sequences and series. You have to show all calculations. You must cite all sources you have used in the research for your work. Copying and pasting from the internet or other sources is considered plagiarism.