Magnetic Pendulum Fractal

Chaotic basin boundaries — sensitivity to initial conditions
Click the fractal to trace a single trajectory. The pendulum settles at the attracting magnet.
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Three magnets sit at the vertices of an equilateral triangle. A pendulum, released from rest at various starting positions, swings under gravity, magnetic attraction, and friction — ultimately settling near one magnet. Color-coding starting positions by which magnet they reach reveals intricate fractal basin boundaries: infinite complexity at the borders, where nearby points diverge to different attractors.