Psyhcedelic Mandelbrot Set

Description| How it works



This app uses the enhanced conditional formatting features of Excel 2007 and later to produce psychedelic images of the Mandelbrot set. Also, this app illistrates some neat tricks to speed up macro execution. Note that this app will not work Excel 2003 or earlier versions.

Download

.xlsm file (168 KB) or .zip file (41 KB)

How to use

Key in the x and y co-ordinates of the center of the image and the span of the image in the cells D5 through D7. Then click the "Generate Image" button to get the image of the fractal.

Contribution from users

Ms. Krisztina Szabó from Hungary has suggested a modification to the code. Her method uses a 256 by 256 array to hold the calculations. The array is written to the cells in one operation, unlike the original version which had more frequent writes. The net result is an order of magnitude increase in speed. Her version can be downloaded here (.xlsm file, 170 KB). (Note - if the file is downloaded as .zip, simply rename it to .xlsm)

Thanks for the brillaint suggestion, Ms Kris! (Click here to see her team's work and postings.)

Sample images

A couple of sample images are shown below. The center of the first is at (0,0) with a span of 4, the center of the second at (-1.625,0) and it's span is 0.05.

Also See:

Mandelbrot Fractal Generator

Simulation of Pendulum Waves

FIR Filter Analysis

Simulation of Diffusion in 1 Dimension

Animation without Charts