MelissaA
Brenton
Shilpa Karhik
A bluffer's guide to chaos theory 2
July 21st 2006 06:01
Today's post is going to be about attractors and strange attractors, and is the second part of my bluffer's guide to chaos theory.
Phase space represents all the possible states of a system, with each point in phase space representing one possible state. An attractor is a point in phase space towards which the system will converge, and which it will return despite small disturbances.
Many such attractors are simple circle or rectangles, but chaos theory also gives rise to more complex attractors, called strange attractors, which are fractal in nature.
One of the most famous of these is the Lorenz attractor, which is often compared to a butterfly. This is shown below.
Two other types of attractors are fixed points, which a system evolves towards and limit cycles, which are like a whirlpool.
I hope you enjoyed today's post. Chaos theory is one of those things which I hope to write more about later, so don't be surprised if you see a detailed guide to chaos theory in a while, once I have finished this bluffer's guide series.
Adam
Phase space represents all the possible states of a system, with each point in phase space representing one possible state. An attractor is a point in phase space towards which the system will converge, and which it will return despite small disturbances.
Many such attractors are simple circle or rectangles, but chaos theory also gives rise to more complex attractors, called strange attractors, which are fractal in nature.
One of the most famous of these is the Lorenz attractor, which is often compared to a butterfly. This is shown below.
Two other types of attractors are fixed points, which a system evolves towards and limit cycles, which are like a whirlpool.
I hope you enjoyed today's post. Chaos theory is one of those things which I hope to write more about later, so don't be surprised if you see a detailed guide to chaos theory in a while, once I have finished this bluffer's guide series.
Adam
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