Chaos Theory: A Brief Introduction

grae's picture

After a bit of tinkering around, I finally figured out how to make this system let me post a web page at an arbitrary URL. So now I've got Chaos Theory: A Brief Introduction back up (the title there is a link to the paper, so if you're looking for it, it's right there.) Unfortunately being offline for a month dropped me off the first page of results for a Google search on Chaos Theory, but hopefully now that I'm back online I'll be searchable again. Which is nice, because I like getting random e-mails from people around the world asking me questions about a paper I wrote in high school. (True story: I once got offered someone's daughter's hand in marriage. I'm not entirely sure if he just wanted to get her citizenship or if he thought I was a good catch after reading the web page, but it was one of the stranger e-mails I've gotten.)

And I've got to give a shout-out to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Their slogan ought to be "helping people avoid the need for backups since 1996." Which is around when I first got this domain name, which I guess explains why my email address here gets 1000 spams a day. But I digress...

Comments

chaos theory

Good day! I was asked by my teacher to report on chaos theory and its aplication to the guidance and counseling work. i find it difficult to relate the two fields. can you lend assistance please? thanks!

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Applying chaos theory to guidance and counseling work

Without knowing too much about what sort of class this is, it's hard, so I'll try to throw out some vague advice that might be helpful.

First off, I'm not surprised that you find it difficult to relate the two fields, since I don't really see any obvious relationships between them. So I've got a couple of possibilities to work from:

1.) You're taking a class that involves some fairly sophisticated mathematical modeling of systems that come up in the context of guidance and/or counseling, probably related to research studies in some way. Without really having an in-depth knowledge of the field, I am not sure that I can be helpful in pointing you anywhere in this case. Although if this is the case, calculus should definitely be a pre-requisite for the class, and probably differential equations if you're actually seriously expected to be looking at that sort of analysis, and I think that's unlikely, given the limited experience I do have with people studying in the field... I'd expect that the most math that would be required (or useful, for that matter) would be statistics.

2.) You're taking a class that basically doesn't require that much math (probably some amount of statistics) in which case rather than using the techniques of chaos theory to model systems that come up, you're more likely expected to use some of the ideas from chaos theory as metaphors for what happens in these sorts of situations.

In case (1), you're expected to actually know enough math to look at this sort of thing, which in my experience is generally only true if you're majoring in either math, engineering, physics, biology, or something like that. In case (2), you're only expected to look at the "pop-culture" definition of chaos theory. (I think I should start calling it the "Jurassic Park" version of chaos theory, since that seems to be where people get the majority of their information about it...)

Since (2) seems the most likely, I'll mention the main things that are likely to be relevant from chaos theory:

* apparently random behavior that has some order underneath when looked at in a different (perhaps non-obvious) way
* sensitive dependence on initial conditions (a small push early on can have a big impact later on)
* self-similarity (a smaller piece of the system, if magnified, looks like a bigger piece of the system)

Hopefully this is helpful.

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Everything I've ever needed to know about Chaos Theory, was here

This page hasn't changed much in the last 5 or 6 years, nor should it.

I've used examples found here, and the story about Dr. Lorenz many times to try to convey a bit of what Chaos theory is about to quasi-interested people.

Thanks for keeping it around!

-nevin

Glad you find it useful!

Glad you find it useful!

need help

can you send me a little of your info on the chaos theory? im doing a project on it in english class. please and thank you for your time

Chaos Theory

dear sir:
I want to know more about Chaos Theory , so i it would be appriciate if you cn send a good information about this Subject.

Thanks.
Farzin

Re: Chaos Theory

Did you look at the links in this post? Did you look at the bibliography for the page?

It's difficult to be helpful with such a vague request. (What sort of mathematical background do you have? Are you looking for a layperson's introduction to the subject, or an in-depth mathematical treatment? Is it appropriate to assume that you understand differential equations, or do you have an aversion to math?)

in 1999

Hi grae,
I saw this page in 1999, when google wasn't famous yet.... at that time i was looking for 'chaos theory' pages, to realize my degree thesina.
Finally, i could complete my academic work, inspired originally in your page !!!. Thanks !!.

im doing a report for college

im doing a report for college on chaos theroy it was one of our topics, im a person who is really interested in this kind of stuff i have seen btterfly effect i was wondering if there are any other good movies or web sites or any thng to put in my report thanks

Chaos and Empire Building

I am wondering how the chaos theory may affect the outcome of war. I am writing an article on the early Church and an outline of the Rome Empire from it birth to its beginning. How did the life and actions of Romulus and Remus bring about the destiny of the world empire? If one doesn't believe in determination, then the way the empire lived was simply in choosing to live within the act of the first murder. What about the current war how does the theory play out in our nation, Irag, and Afghanistan?

my uneducated answer to this

my uneducated answer to this is that chaos theory has been used by many millitary groups for hundreds of years. i.e. a small miscalcullation at the early stages can create a disaster in the latter well if you look at preccission bombing or even just firing a rifle the slightest error can have chatostrphic consesquences i.e a rifle 2mill out when fired at 100 metres you will be off by 2 inches imagine the that with precision bombing. So to answer your question yes chaotic theory affects war as most armies have learned to combat it! mind u i would like to learn more myself and hopefully be corrected

Chaos theory

I have to do a huge math project on chaos. I was just wondering if you can simplyfy the meaning of it. THANKS

Chaos theory

I was wondering if you could clear up something for me. I am not savvy on all the theory names, and half the time in the middle of my long winded questions I see my own answers... but if one drops a pebble in a puddle.. the energy flows outwards in ripples and seems to disappear at the puddle edge. As energy does not stop.. I am curious if the energy continues from the puddle edge outward in a changed form not containing H2o, or does it double back and regroup in the center? I guess I could do this experiment myself, but my underlying question which I cannot do an experiment on is this...

If a live person played a piano, passed away and the piano could still be heard at times... did the original music notes/energy from the piano flow out of the room past the walls... or is is possible that it bounces off the wall of the room or exterior of the house and regroups in the center of the room. Maybe overtime the energy gains momentum from perhaps friction against itself so much so that it becomes audible again?

Finally is there a theory discussing the opposite of the butterfly effect... or is that called zero point energy?
The increase of the wind from a butterfly wing when it reaches the other side of the world... vs. the zero point energy of a never ending fade that without nano equipment, we cannot detect, hence labeled zero point energy? Hope you understand what I am asking, not sure I understand myself. Thanks

Very good post, thanks a lot.

Very good post, thanks a lot.

To answer some of your

To answer some of your questions:

Energy is conserved, so you're right that it doesn't disappear. In your puddle example, I believe that what happens as time continues is the following:

  • Whenever a ripple hits the edge of the puddle, it gets reflected back. It probably also slightly perturbs the edge of the puddle.
  • Some of the kinetic energy of the motion of the ripples gets converted into heat energy (which is really just kinetic energy at a smaller scale.) And some of it is transferred to the air molecules in the same way. This is a very small amount of energy, though, so it's probably not enough to cause a perceptible temperature difference.

The problem with your second question (about the piano) is that waves don't propagate forever: as they're traveling through a medium, they lose energy by transmitting some of their energy to that medium. A sound wave is just a wave traveling through the air, causing air molecules to vibrate; as it does this, it's losing some of its energy to the air. Eventually, the magnitude of the sound wave becomes low enough that it's impossible to hear any more. Eventually the wave's magnitude will be small enough that the random oscillations of air molecules will be larger than the sound wave itself, and it will be swallowed up even if there is no ambient noise.

In theory I think it's possible for sound to somehow spontaneously get produced, but in practice I think that's so unlikely to ever occur that it's better to just say that it's never going to happen.

I think that what you might be asking is how the organized forms of energy in the universe end up losing their form and order, and the answer to that is the second law of thermodynamics, which states that in any closed system, entropy is always increasing. Energy is never really "lost", but the sort of low-level random oscillations of matter aren't a particularly useful form of energy and can't easily be converted to useful forms of energy (without losing additional energy as a side effect), which I think is what you might be trying to get at with your phrase "zero point energy".

If I understand what you're asking correctly.