Q20

[YosminB212]

Hi! So when I made the "scale" for this passage, I had on one side: Fractal geometry is a new theory that's super cool and has many applications and on the other side: Fractal geometry won't last unless it can start proving theories. I had the author supporting the first side.

Because of this, I was stuck between answer choices B & C and ultimately chose C because I thought that's what the author would have supported.

Help

[ohthatpatrick]

You scale is nicely simple and on point.

(C) just feels pretty incomplete, compared to (B).

Where did you see the author tipping her hand to the pro-fractal side?

It seems like she stays relatively neutral throughout, summarizing the popularity and the skepticism as a reporter might.

Finally, I'm not sure the claim (C) makes about "detailed images of natural forms" is supported.

I think the idea is that fractals have the POTENTIAL to illustrate natural forms (mathematically),
and that amazing computer generated images (like that of Koch's curve) have been generated,
but those two ideas don't intersect.

[JG350]

I chose C (between b and c) because C mentions self-similarity explicitly, and it seemed that a large portion of the passage was devoted to explaining/illustrating this concept. I also did not see certain mathematicians' refusal to embrace fractals as central to the passage...this being touched on mainly at the tail end of the passage.
I was not happy with C's focus on computer generated natural forms, but I still thought that it was the best option.