CHAOS, AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
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        Georgia Tech PHYS 7123                   Fall semester 2003
        Predrag Cvitanovic'

        Lecture 1:         9:35-10:55 Tue Aug 19 2003 in Howey S106

An overview of the reading material
-----------------------------------

That deterministic dynamics leads to chaos is no surprise to anyone
who has tried pool, billiards or snooker - that is what the game is
about - so we start our course about what is chaos and what to do
about it by a game of pinball. This might seem a trifle trivial, but a
pinball is to chaotic dynamics what a pendulum is to integrable
systems: thinking clearly about what is ``chaos'' in a pinball will help
us tackle more difficult problems, such as computing diffusion
constants in deterministic gases, or computing the Helium spectrum.

What will really happen
-----------------------

This time (and this time only) I will use lots of transparencies to give
you the "big picture" - why is this stuff interesting and worth learning?
You can sit back and relax - on Thursday we get down to brasstacks. And
remember throughout this course: if there is something you do not
understand,
please stop the lecturer and ask. The course (and the webbook) is self-
contained, and there is nothing in it that you should take on faith.

Reading:
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        Classical and Quantum Chaos     ---    www.nbi.dk/ChaosBook
        chapter 1: Overture
        appendix A (optional, for your pleasure only)

Exercises:
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        1.1, 1.2 - due Tue Aug 28 at 12:25
	(optional: points will be browny points)

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        Lecture 2:         09:35-10:55 Thu, Aug 21 in Howey S106
        guest lecturer: Slaven Peles
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                                Predrag Cvitanovic'
                                404/385-2502  office, Howey W501A
                                404/881-6006  home
                                predrag.cvitanovic@physics.gatech.edu
                                www.cns.gatech.edu/~predrag


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PS - after waiting for an hour for buzzport to distribute this e-mail,
I am going back to the old established technology - I suggest you
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