SCIENCE
HEALTH
A New Dimension
Spending the Summer with Fractals
AVI FELDAN(`10)
"but when I
arrived, I came
face-to-face with
the brightest
teenagers I have
ever met in my
life."
-Four-
It was early summer, just a few
weeks after the last day of junior year, and in
a few days time I would be boarding a plane
and heading to Tel Aviv. My destination,
would not be a touring program; I chose
to spend my summer working with other
teenagers in a research laboratory at the
Technion University in Haifa on a program
called SciTech. The title of the research
paper I would be working on was incredibly
complicated; how was I supposed to
understand "The Fractal Dimension of
Electrode Deposited Dendrites in a Zinc
Sulfate Solution?" I tried to calm my nerves
by assuring myself that no doubt everyone
else on the program was equally as
confused, but when I arrived, I came face-to-
face with the brightest teenagers I have ever
met in my life. My lab partner had received
a perfect score on all three sections of the
SAT (as had a few other kids on the program)
and both of his parents were professors at
Stanford.
I was
introduced
to the two
top math
and science
students in
all of Serbia,
as well as
a teenage
girl who
had spent the
previous summer interning for
NASA. Not exactly what I had
expected from a teenage summer
program...
There were students from
all over the world, each with their
own unique background. There was
a Brit from Cambridge University
working on a project entitled
"The Underwater Marine Ramjet
A Parametric Study" and two
ultra-nationalist Serbians working
on "Control Theory Extending
the Segway Model to Other
Practical Applications." There were
representatives from The United
States, Canada, England, Turkey,
Israel, Italy, Bulgaria and Serbia.
Despite my initial confusion, I
came to love my research. Fractals
fascinated me, and I enjoyed
studying them in a real research
laboratory environment. As I
sympathize with your confusion,
I'm going to attempt to explain
the specifics of my research in an
understandable way. Take a deep
breath, please.
A fractal is a self-similar object
that has finite area but infinite
perimeter. This is demonstrated in
objects such as broccoli, where
each stem is a smaller version
of the whole vegetable. Now
try to picture the stems getting
smaller and smaller indefinitely.
In the lab I would run
an electric current through a
zinc sulfate solution, enabling
the crystals in the solution,
called dendrites, to group
together and form shapes that
I would then scan and study.
Below are images of dendrite
shapes I actually grew, using
varying solution concentrations
and electrical currents.
My experience on
SciTech was more than an
extension of school; it was an
opportunity to do graduate
level research in a personally
compelling area of science
amongst a group of unique,
motivated, and extraordinarily
intelligent teenagers. I'm
so glad that I conquered
my fears and (despite my
initial confusion--fractal
dimensions? Zinc sulfate?)
tackled something that, at first
glance, seemed way over my
head. By taking
a chance and
going beyond
the ordinary
realm of high
school summer
programs
student, I was
able to take
advantage of
an incredible,
once-in-
a-lifetime
experience.