AGGREGATION (DIFFUSION LIMITED)(DLA)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 66 ▶ |
| Object type | Methodology or model |
A fractal aggregation type of model constructed on a computer, that starts with a single seed particle and grows to form a cluster by allowing tiny circular particles to attach themselves, one at a time (After I. STEWART, 1992, p.14).
STEWART explains: “Successive new particles move towards the cluster in a ”random walk“, a series of random motions in all directions often likened to the motion of a drunkard. Wherever the particles hit, they stuck” (Ibid).
Clusters thus obtained “… offer a ”random fractal geometry“…difficult to characterise in analytic terms; that is no one has a way of predicting the pattern that will be generated, short of doing an experiment and observe the result… (However)… surprising regularities emerge from apparently unstructurated Template:Ency entity clusters” (Ibid).
Furthermore, the observed fractal patterns bear a great similarity with a number of natural forms as in electrodeposition of metals and in the growth of bacterial colonies. Some kind of order, related to fractalization, seems thus to emerge from randomness, and seems to govern the progressive occupation of space under partially undetermined conditions.