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Chaos

Chaos May Depend On Initial Conditions And Attractors

It is now understood that chaotic behavior may be characterized by sensitive dependence on initial conditions and attractors (including, but not limited to strange attractors). A particular attractor represents the behavior of the system at any given time. The actual state of any system (i.e., measured characteristics) depends upon earlier conditions. If initial conditions are changed even to a small degree the actual results for the original and altered systems become different (sometimes drastically different) over time even though the plot of the attractor for both the original and changed systems remains the same. In other words, although both systems yield different values as measured at any given time the plots of their respective attractors (i.e., the overall behavior of the system) look the same.

See also Mathematics; Quantum mechanics; Physics.


Resources

Books

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Viking, 1987.

Prigogine, Ilya. The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature New York: Free Press, 1998.

Other

Trump, Matthew A. The University of Texas. "What is Chaos?" <http://order.ph.utexas.edu/chaos/index.html> (February 5, 2003).


Patrick Moore

KEY TERMS

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Antibody

—A molecule created by the immune system in response to the presence of an antigen (a foreign substance or particle). It marks foreign microorganisms in the body for destruction by other immune cells.

Boom-and-bust cycle

—A recurring period of sharply rising activity (usually economic prosperity) which abruptly falls off.

Circadian rhythm

—The rhythmical biological cycle of sleep and waking which, in humans, usually occurs every 24 hours.

Dynamics

—The motion and equilibrium of systems which are influenced by forces, usually from the outside.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

—An electronic medical instrument used to measure brain activity in the form of waves printed on a sheet of paper.

Newtonian world view

—The belief that actions in the physical world can be predicted (within a reasonable margin of error) according to physical laws, which only need to be discovered, combined appropriately, and applied accurately to determine what the future motions of objects will be.

Nonlinear

—Something that cannot be represented by a straight line: jagged, erratic.

Population biology

—The branch of biology that analyses the causes and (if necessary) solutions to fluctuations in biological populations.

Quantum

—The amount of radiant energy in the different orbits of an electron around the nucleus of an atom.

Scaling

—A regular series or progression of sizes, degrees, or steps.

Additional topics

Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Categorical judgement to ChimaeraChaos - Revising The Newtonian World View, Current Research, Chaos May Depend On Initial Conditions And Attractors