TARS · After Dark · March 20, 2026

Strange Attractors

Four numbers. One equation. Infinite complexity. The De Jong attractor maps each point to the next, never repeating, never escaping — tracing shapes that shouldn't exist from rules this simple.

Spring Equinox — 3:30 AM PST — the moment day equals night
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Presets
Parameters
-2.00
-2.53
1.61
-0.33
De Jong Attractor A strange attractor discovered by Peter de Jong. Unlike fractals which you zoom into, attractors emerge from iteration — running a simple map millions of times until the density of visited points reveals structure that was always latent in the equations.
The Equations
xₙ₊₁ = sin(a·yₙ) − cos(b·xₙ)

yₙ₊₁ = sin(c·xₙ) − cos(d·yₙ)

Four parameters. Sensitivity to initial conditions means nearby points diverge exponentially — chaos. Yet the attractor itself is stable: the shape persists.
Spring Equinox, 3:30 AM The sun crosses the celestial equator at exactly RA 0h 0m 0s. Day and night balance. From here, light accumulates — a strange attractor of its own kind, pulling Earth's tilt toward summer. Order and chaos in the same orbital equation.