Chaotic Dynamics
An Introduction

New edition of a very successful undergraduate text on chaos.

Gregory L. Baker (Author), Jerry P. Gollub (Author)

9780521476850, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 January 1996

272 pages, 114 b/w illus. 3 tables 76 exercises
23.5 x 19.1 x 1.5 cm, 0.47 kg

'It bridges the gap between the popular books and the technical tomes, by employing computer experiments in place of calculations, and by concentrating on examples … Written by people for whom chaos is not an end but a means to the understanding of physical phenomena.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

The previous edition of this text was the first to provide a quantitative introduction to chaos and nonlinear dynamics at undergraduate level. It was widely praised for the clarity of the writing and for the unique and effective way in which the authors presented the basic ideas. These same qualities characterise this revised and expanded second edition. Interest in chaotic dynamics has grown explosively in recent years. Applications to practically every scientific field have had far-reaching impact. As in the first edition, the authors present all the main features of chaotic dynamics using the damped, driven pendulum as the primary model. This second edition includes additional material on the analysis and characterisation of chaotic data, and applications of chaos. This new edition of Chaotic Dynamics can be used as a text for courses on chaos for physics and engineering students at the second and third year level.

1. Introduction
2. Some helpful tools
3. Visualization of the pendulum's dynamics
4. Toward an understanding of chaos
5. The characterization of chaotic attractors
6. Experimental characterization, prediction, and modification of chaotic states
7. Chaos broadly applied
Further reading
Appendix A. Numerical integration – Runge-Kutta method
Appendix B. Computer program listings
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Physics [PH], Chaos theory [PBWS]