14 May 2014, 2:41 pm
14 May 2014, 2:46 pm
14 May 2014, 8:47 pm
The Mandelbrot sequence!! !
I've seen it in everything my whole life but found it nearly impossible to explain to people, I never knew it was a scientifically recognised thing. I would always tell people how everything naturally occurring is full of patterns both on a macro and micro level but people would always nod, give an "uh-huh" and change the subject... but now I know there is a name for this, it has some credibility when I talk about it.
All living things for example start off as just one or a couple of simple cells, but these cells hold all of the genetic information required to make something which seems to us to be rather complex. How can this be? The Mandelbrot sequence contains every pattern that occurs in nature, from the distribution of tree sizes in a forest to the shape of those trees' branches to the arrangement of the patterning on the outside of a pineapple. These complex patterns are given by the simple formula z ⇌ z^2 + c, where you take the new value of z and re-apply it to the formula. Complex natural patterns are the result of very very simple patterns repeating and compounding! This is the way it must be because there is only so much genetic data a cell or two can really store!
I have also been very good at games like paper scissors rock in the past, where I am able to get inside the opponents head to a degree, predicting their pattern of reactions to winning or losing and which option each of us chose.
When I was about 16 (?) I became a little obsessed with rubik's cubes... When I first picked one up it took me about a week to solve, but I learned from it very quickly. I began to see how even though the number of overall combinations of the smaller blocks that make up the cube is very large, if certain patterns were followed when turning it's faces there were a very strict and small number of ways those blocks could move in relation to each other, eventually realising that I could isolate things in groups of 3; rotating in place or swapping the places of groups of 3 blocks of the same type (corner or edge pieces). A week after first solving it I was able to solve it in 5 minutes or so each time, that number quickly dropped below 30 seconds and eventually to my record time of 12 seconds. I also got into 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 rubik's cubes (a regular one is 3x3x3) and solved the 4x4x4 within 5 hours or so if first getting my hands on it and 5x5x5 in about 45 minutes of first buying one. This kind of thing just comes naturally to me, and not too long after easily completing a 5x5x5 and getting my time down to <5 minutes on it, I just kind of stopped solving rubik's cubes - I had learned all they had to teach me and larger ones were no more challenging, they just took longer.
I have always seen patterns in writing and speech as well, innately picking up on how certain syllable structures in sentences just sound more pleasing and things like that, even at primary school age.
When other kids would play catch at primary school I would watch the ball for a time and think to myself about it's arc through the air, and I eventually came up with some theories. 1) the ball will travel furthest (without wind resistance) being thrown at 45 degrees. 2) (again without wind resistance) x degrees above and x degrees below 45 would travel equal distance. I was always bad at throwing and catching until I realised that, but after realising that and learning to judge and account for wind resistance I loved throwing high angle shots to the other kids with great accuracy - I would just picture a low angle shot to that person and imagine the force required, subtract that angle from 90 degrees and throw it with the same force + the amount I thought I would need to compensate for wind resistance at the new angle 
I have also been doing more complicated maths in my head ever since I learned maths and before I learned what a prime factor was by breaking down larger numbers into their prime factors then simplifying those into multiples of 5 + or - a number less than 5.
