The Essence of Chaos
Chaos surrounds us. Seemingly random events -- the flapping of a flag, a storm-driven wave striking the shore, a pinball's path -- often appear to have no order, no rational pattern. Explicating the theory of chaos and the consequences of its principal findings -- that actual, precise rules may govern such apparently random behavior -- has been a major part of the work of Edward N. Lorenz. In The Essence of Chaos, Lorenz presents to the general reader the features of this "new science," with...
Search in google:
The study of chaotic systems has become a major scientific pursuit in recent years, shedding light on the apparently random behaviour observed in fields as diverse as climatology and mechanics. InThe Essence of Chaos Edward Lorenz, one of the founding fathers of Chaos and the originator of its seminal concept of the Butterfly Effect, presents his own landscape of our current understanding of the field.Lorenz presents everyday examples of chaotic behaviour, such as the toss of a coin, the pinball's path, the fall of a leaf, and explains in elementary mathematical strms how their essentially chaotic nature can be understood. His principal example involved the construction of a model of a board sliding down a ski slope. Through this model Lorenz illustrates chaotic phenomena and the related concepts of bifurcation and strange attractors. He also provides the context in which chaos can be related to the similarly emergent fields of nonlinearity, complexity and fractals.As an early pioneer of chaos, Lorenz also provides his own story of the human endeavour in developing this new field. He describes his initial encounters with chaos through his study of climate and introduces many of the personalities who contributed early breakthroughs. His seminal paper, "Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wing in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?" is published for the first time.
PrefaceCh. 1Glimpses of Chaos3It Only Looks RandomPinballs and ButterfliesIt Ain't Got RhythmZeroing In on ChaosCh. 2A Journey into Chaos25Chaos in ActionThe Heart of ChaosBroken HeartsChaos of Another SpeciesIn and Out of ChaosCh. 3Our Chaotic Weather77Prediction: A Tale of Two FluidsMeteorology: Two Tales of One FluidThe Unperformable ExperimentVoices from DishpansThe Five-Million-Variable Dynamical SystemThe ConsequencesCh. 4Encounters with Chaos111PrologueRecognitionIn LimboSearchingThe Strange AttractorThe Ubiquity of ChaosMake Your Own ChaosIs Randomness Chaos?Ch. 5What Else Is Chaos?161NonlinearityComplexityFractalityApp. 1. The Butterfly Effect181App. 2. Mathematical Excursions185App. 3. A Brief Dynamical-Systems Glossary205Bibliography214Index221
