While experimenting with the function rand () to simulate a random 
distribution of trees, (moving object at a random distance from origin and 
then doing it orbit on the y-axis, when I found this.
I've noticed a pattern when attempting to distribute objects on a square 
grid. But why this circular distribution?

Does anyone know why there are 7 arms and not 5 or 13 or something more 
random?


#include "colors.inc"
#include "math.inc"
camera {location <0,20,-30>
        look_at <0,0,0>
       }
light_source {<50,100,-10> colour White}

plane {y,0
      texture {
             pigment {checker colour White colour Orange}
             }
      }


#declare Tree =
union {cylinder {<0,0,0>,<0,1,0>,.1 pigment {Red}}
           sphere {<0,1,0>.4 pigment {Green}}
          }

#local Num_Tree = 0 ;
#while (Num_Tree<1000)
  #local rnd_tree = seed (Num_Tree);
  #if (rand (rnd_tree)<.95 )
    object {Tree
            translate <50*rand(rnd_tree),0,0>
            rotate y*360*rand(rnd_tree)
            }
   #end
  #local Num_Tree = Num_Tree +1 ;
#end


pd. I found it while editing the code to upload the image. The key is in the 
use of the same rand value to control the density of generating objects. But 
interesting anyway.
pd2 google searchs results: "the seven arms of Shiva", "the seven arms of 
the Menorah", "an Octopus with only seven arms"...
B. Gimeno

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