I was perusing through Wikipedia and Wolfram in search of anything and everything related to fractals and chaos theory, and ran across the definition of a Standard Map. I have no freaking clue what it is all about, but apparently it is used “in the fields of mechanics of particles, accelerator physics, plasma physics, and solid state physics.” (so sayeth Wikipedia)
Anyway, it looked cool and the formula is pretty simple, so I did it in Flash. 🙂
[kml_flashembed movie=“https://www.bit-101.com/2003/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/standardmap.swf” width=“400″ height=“450″/]
Just click around, or switch on auto draw and drag around. The K slider adjusts one of the magic parameters that makes different kinds of pretty pictures. Too low and you’ll get a bunch of straight lines. Too high and you’ll get mostly television static. I also added some funky coloring based on the position you first click. Maybe I’ll make a larger version and market it as a techno album cover art generator.
I bet Jim Armstrong can tell us what it all means. 🙂