Chaos Theory Explained

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Chaos Theory Explained “Traditionally, scientists have looked for the simplest view of the world around us. Now, mathematics and computer powers have produced a theory that helps researchers to understand the complexities of nature. The theory of chaos touches all disciplines.” -Ian Percival, The Essence of Chaos Part I: The Basics of Chaos. Watch a leaf flow down stream; watch its behavior within the water… Perhaps it will sit upon the surface, gently twirling along with the current, dancing around eddies, slightly spinning, then all of a sudden, it slaps into a rock or gets sucked beneath the water by a small whirlpool. After doing this enough times one will realize it is nearly impossible to accurately predict a leaf’s travel downstream, as the slightest change in its position can result in a severe deviation from it’s original path. A small change in one variable can have a disproportional, even catastrophic, impact on other variables; this is the signature of chaos. By no means, though, is that the extent. Scientists used to, before the chaos theory, believe in the theory of reductionism, many still do. Reductionism imagines nature as equally capable of being assembled and disassembled. Reductionists think that when everything is broken down a universal theory will become evident that will explain all things. Reductionism implied the rather simple view of chaos evident in Laplace’s dream of a universal formula: Chaos was merely complexity so great that in practice scientists couldn’t track it, but in principle they might one day be able to. When that day came there would be no chaos, everything in existence would be perfectly predictable, no surprises, the world would be safely mut... ... middle of paper ... ... Beiser, 1997, WCB/McGraw hill Chaos in Dynamical Systems, Edward Ott, Cambridge University Press, 1993. www.lib.rmit.edu.au/fractals/exploring.html -Understanding Chaos and Fractals www-chaos.umd.edu - the Maryland chaos page, magazine publications and articles + diagrams and explanations The Meaning of Quantum Theory - Jim Baggot, Oxford, 1992 Chaos in Wonderland - Clifford A. Pickover, St. Martins, 1994 Turbulent Mirror - John Briggs, Harper&Row, 1993 Exploring Chaos - Nina Hall, W.W. Norton & Company, 1993 The Essence of Chaos - Lorenze, Washington University Press, 1993 Footnote Legend- 1. The Essence of Chaos 2. Turbulent Mirror 3. Turbulent Mirror 4. Chaos in Wonderland 5. Exploring Chaos 6. Turbulent Mirror 7. Exploring Chaos 8. The Matter Myth 9. www.lib.rmit.edu.au/fractals/exploring.html 10. Chaos in Wonderland

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