CHAOS, AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT ----------------------------------------------------------- Georgia Tech PHYS 7224 fall 2007 Predrag Cvitanovic' Lecture 1: 1:35-2:55 Tue Aug 21 in Howey S204 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. I use lots of words to give you the "big picture" - why is this stuff interesting and worth learning? You can sit back and relax - 2nd week 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 ChaosBook) is self-contained, and there is nothing in it that you should take on faith. Reading: -------- Chaos: Classical and Quantum --- ChaosBook.org chapter 1: Overture appendix A (optional, for your pleasure only) Predrag Cvitanovic' 404/385-2502 office, Howey W501A 404/881-6006 home predrag.cvitanovic@physics.gatech.edu www.cns.gatech.edu/~predrag --------------------------------------------------------------------