Chaos : a very short introduction / Leonard A. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Leonard A.

Series:

Very short introductions ; 159.

Very short introductions ; 159

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chaotic behavior in systems--Popular works.

Chaotic behavior in systems.

Differentiable dynamical systems.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (180 pages.) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

This book provides a complete understanding of chaotic dynamics in maths, physics, and the real world, with an explanation of why it is important and how it differs from the idea of randomness. The author draws on certain physical systems and phenomena, for example the weather forecast, and the role of chaos in gambling.

Contents:

Cover Page

Title page

Copyright Page

Dedication Page

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

List of illustrations

1 The emergence of chaos

2 Exponential growth, nonlinearity, common sense

3 Chaos in context: determinism, randomness, and noise

4 haos in mathematical models

5 Fractals, strange attractors, and dimension(s)

6 Quantifying the dynamics of uncertainty

7 Real numbers, real observations, and computers

8 Sorry, wrong number: statistics and chaos

9 Predictability: does chaos constrain our forecasts?

10 Applied chaos: can we see through our models?

11 Philosophy in chaos

Glossary

Further reading

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-151807-7

1-281-14703-6

1-4294-7006-2

9786611147037

OCLC:

476240417