Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Mathematics and Statistics Dept.
Advisor(s)
Jan Holly
Second Advisor
Scott Taylor
Abstract
The “chaos game” is a well-known algorithm by which one may construct a pictorial representation of an iterative process. The resulting sets are known as fractals and can be mathematically characterized by measures of dimension as well as by their associated recurrence relations. Using the chaos game algorithm, is it possible to derive meaningful structure out of our own genetic encoding, and that of other organisms? In this paper, I will present one method of applying the chaos game to biological data and subsequently will discuss both the mathematical and biological implications of the results.
Keywords
chaos game, fractional dimension, gene structure
Recommended Citation
Harmon, Sarah. M., "Recurrence Relations, Fractals, and Chaos: Implications for Analyzing Gene Structure" (2012). Honors Theses. Paper 643.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/643
Multimedia URL
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