Secant Animation 1

[DeepZoomNet]

The secant method is similar to Newton's method for finding roots, but uses two points to estimate the tangent line rather than using the derivative function to determine it exactly. A picture is worth a thousand words here... Wikipedia has a good explanation.

The cosine function is just the function whose roots we are trying to find here. The secant method can be used on any function (see my Secant Animation 2, for example).

It is an unfortunate jumble of terminology.

[FractAlkemist]

I know what secant and cosine is from trig, don't know how they relate to fractals. But its a cool vid anyway - nice techno soundtrak too. Colors too blueshifted - need some red, orange, strong yellow. Just MHO.

[DeepZoomNet]

Thanks for the input about the colors. I was trying to get away from the red/green/blue/yellow/white thing. I agree there is, perhaps, an overabundance of blueness in the palette.