FractalView vs p
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
FractalView
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Most failures of understanding are failures of scale. FractalView is a thinking environment designed to help you move fluidly between detail and meaning—without losing context. Human beings evolved for linear thinking. We now live in a logarithmic world. FractalView makes jumping orders of magnitude feel natural. The Core Idea Scale isn’t just visual zoom—it’s resolution. Different levels of scale demand different kinds of thinking. FractalView is built on a fractal model: the same structure repeats at every level. Whether you’re examining a sentence, a system, or a civilization, the underlying patterns often rhyme. You’re not clicking through folders—you’re traveling through the idea itself. Three Modes of Thought FractalView offers three distinct modes, each tuned to a different kind of work. Scholar — What is true? Designed for research, writing, and interpretation. Scholar mode helps you examine ideas across levels of abstraction: evidence, claims, arguments, and significance. It supports careful thinking about sources, patterns, and meaning—without losing sight of why the work matters. Builder — What must not break? Designed for systems, teams, and care. Builder mode focuses on continuity, failure points, and trust. It helps you reason across moments, processes, and structures—so local fixes don’t quietly degrade the larger system you’re responsible for sustaining. Founder — What creates value? Designed for strategy, leverage, and direction. Founder mode helps you connect daily decisions to long-term outcomes. It surfaces how small changes compound, where real leverage lives, and how micro-friction often mirrors macro-failure. What FractalView Enables Semantic Zoom As you move between scales, the content itself changes—facts become patterns, patterns become stakes. Fractal Structure Each idea remains coherent at every level. Micro-problems often share the same shape as macro-problems. Split-Scale Awareness Work in the details while keeping the larger frame visible. Avoid collapsing into noise—or drifting into abstraction. Scalar Thinking Tools Guided prompts help you reason downward (root causes) and upward (implications), training a skill used instinctively by great thinkers across disciplines. Who It’s For FractalView is for people who think for a living: Writers and scholars holding thesis and sentence at once Builders responsible for systems, communities, or teams Founders balancing execution with long-term vision Students stuck between “too big” and “too small” Anyone trying to understand how today’s actions connect to larger meaning The Deeper Claim FractalView isn’t a productivity app. It’s a scale literacy tool. Over time, it trains a cognitive motion: the ability to move up and down levels of abstraction without losing clarity, care, or purpose. Meaning lives at every scale—from the footnote to the thesis, from the moment to the infinite.
p
Visualize numbers in their real and p-adic completions simultaneously. Explore digits in base p, analyze algebraic numbers, and delve into special functions. Offers a library of examples and is designed for privacy.
- Adelic strip visualization
- Streaming precision up to 200 digits
- Analysis of algebraic numbers and polynomials
- Deep dive into number theory concepts
- Library of worked examples
- On-device computation for privacy
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p-adelic shows a number in all of its completions at once. Type 1/3, √2, a polynomial or log 7 and watch the adelic strip: one column for the real line and one for each prime p, each streaming the number's digits in base p and growing leftward as you turn the precision dial. There is no "p-adic mode" to switch into — you always see the whole picture, the way number theorists think about it. THE STRIP • A column per place: ∞ plus the primes that matter for your input, and any prime you pin. • Streaming precision from 5 to 200 digits; every column updates together. • Exact periodicity for rationals: the repeating block is marked with an overline, and long runs of digits fold into pills you can tap open. • Tap a column to focus it; the focused card shows valuations, unit parts, Legendre symbols and the Laurent form. DEEP DIVE • Digits, Laurent series and Witt-vector views of the same number. • Nested balls: zoom into ℤₚ ball by ball, following your number's digits. • The Bruhat–Tits tree and the Berkovich line of the chosen place. ALGEBRAIC NUMBERS • √d, roots of unity ζₙ, Teichmüller representatives, and any algebraic number given by its minimal polynomial, e.g. algebraic(x³ − 2). • See whether a prime splits, stays inert or ramifies; extend the field with one tap and cycle through the Galois conjugates. POLYNOMIALS • Newton polygons at every prime and at ∞, with slopes, multiplicities and the Krasner check. SPECIAL FUNCTIONS • p-adic exp, log and Artin–Hasse, with their convergence disks. • Factorials with Legendre's formula, Morita's Γₚ with the Wilson check. • Kubota–Leopoldt ζₚ and L-values, Hilbert symbols with the reciprocity check, and Tate's local factors. LEARN AND REUSE • A Library of worked examples for every idea above, from −1 = …(p−1)(p−1)(p−1) to the Berkovich line of ∛2. • History you can reopen with one tap. • VoiceOver describes every visualization; text and digits follow Dynamic Type. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything is computed on your device. The app has no account, no analytics and makes no network connections. For students meeting p-adic numbers for the first time, teachers who want a live picture to point at, and researchers who need a Newton polygon or a Hilbert symbol checked in seconds.
Screenshots
Verdict
FractalView and p are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | FractalView | p |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Justin Neuman | PracticallyZen, LLC |
In-app purchases
FractalView
No in-app purchases
p
No in-app purchases









