Question

I am trying to make a koch snowflake using recursion and gpdraw in java. I can make the actual koch curve itself but i dont know how to make it come all the way around and make a snowflake.

import gpdraw.*;

public class KochCurve
{
  private SketchPad myPaper;
  private DrawingTool myPencil;

  public KochCurve()
  {
    myPaper = new SketchPad(600,600);
    myPencil = new DrawingTool(myPaper);
  }

  public void draw()
  {
    drawKochCurve(6, 300);
  }

  private void drawKochCurve(double level, double sideLength)
  {
    if(level < 1)
       myPencil.forward(sideLength);

    else
    {
      drawKochCurve(level - 1, (sideLength)/3);
      myPencil.turnLeft(60);
      drawKochCurve(level - 1, (sideLength)/3);
      myPencil.turnRight(120);
      drawKochCurve(level - 1, (sideLength)/3);
      myPencil.turnLeft(60);   
      drawKochCurve(level - 1, (sideLength)/3);
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

You will have to paint the same curve in each of the three directions of a triangle. You can do this by writing a function drawKochCurve(double level, double sideLength, double additionalAngle) and calling it three times, adding the additionalAngle.

Wikipedia has more details: The Koch curve originally described by Koch is constructed with only one of the three sides of the original triangle. In other words, three Koch curves make a Koch snowflake. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_snowflake