Updating classic math illustrations

I recently saw this classic image from over a century ago attempting to illustrate the limit set of a reflection group.
Fricke, R., and Klein, F., Vorlesungen uber die Theorie der automorphen Funktionen, Teubner Leipzig, Germany, 1897.

Fricke, R., and Klein, F., Vorlesungen uber die Theorie der automorphen Funktionen, Teubner Leipzig, Germany, 1897.

Benoit Mandelbrot computed a more exact version a few  decades ago.

Mandelbrots version

Mandelbrot, B. B., "Self-Inverse Fractals Osculated by Sigma-Discs and the Limit Sets of Inversion Groups," Mathematical Intelligencer 5 (1983), 9-17.

Mandelbrot’s version is more correct as far as the limit set goes, but it doesn’t show the tessellation (the white and shaded regions in the first drawing).  The software I’ve been building should do a better job of showing both the limit set and tessellation.  But that’s a project for a bit later.

Jan 25, 2010: In a comment to this post, Xavier Buff has pointed out that the limit set and tessellation have been computed at http://images.math.cnrs.fr/Un-ensemble-limite.html.  The pictures there are very nice, especially since separate components of the fundamental region have been give different colorings.  The site contains other mathematical visualizations as well – you can browse at http://images.math.cnrs.fr/-Images-et-visualisation-.html.

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Classroom treat

I just got word that a UK professor was going to show these movies to her hyperbolic geometry class today, as a treat for the last class of the term.

Reminds me of when I was in public school and we got ice cream on the last day of school.

In another day and age, they would have been asked to get out their rulers and compasses and draw the thing, as shown here. Up until recently, that’s representative of the best depiction mathematicians had.

The movie that corresponds to it is here.

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Intro

I’ve set myself the task of creating a movie that shows a hyperbolic tessellation. This project has been brewing in one form or another for years, but I’ve finally got the time and motivation to at least get started on it. Along the way, we’ll follow background, progress and various tangents. Although the math part is important, the software part will play a role, because at the moment I’ve got too many choices.

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