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Chaos: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

by Leonard Smith (Author) "The 'butterfly effect' has become a popular slogan of chaos ..." (more)

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Product details

Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: OUP Oxford (22 Feb 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0192853783
ISBN-13: 978-0192853783
Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 1.4 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 76,499 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories:

#7 in	Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Mathematics > Applied Mathematics > Chaos & Fractal Theory
#11 in	Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Chaos
#16 in	Books > Science & Nature > Physics > Chaos & Dynamic Systems

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Product Description

Chaos exists in systems all around us. Even the simplest system of cause and effect can be subject to chaos, denying us accurate predictions of its behaviour, and sometimes giving rise to astonishing structures of large-scale order. Our growing understanding of Chaos Theory is having fascinating applications in the real world - from technology to global warming, politics, human behaviour, and even gambling on the stock market. Leonard Smith shows that we all have an intuitive understanding of chaotic systems. He uses accessible maths and physics (replacing complex equations with simple examples like pendulums, railway lines, and tossing coins) to explain the theory, and points to numerous examples in philosophy and literature (Edgar Allen Poe, Chang-Tzu, Arthur Conan Doyle) that illuminate the problems. The beauty of fractal patterns and their relation to chaos, as well as the history of chaos, and its uses in the real world and implications for the philosophy of science are all discussed in this Very Short Introduction.

About the Author

Leonard Smith is Senior Research Fellow in Mathematics at the University of Oxford, where he lectures on nonlinear dynamical systems and chaos.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
The 'butterfly effect' has become a popular slogan of chaos. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but not a very short introduction, 1 Jul 2008

By	P. Matthews (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book aims to introduce the key concepts of chaos in a readable way, including no mathematics. The title is a bit misleading, since there are over 160 pages and the book covers some quite advanced concepts. Overall, the book attempts to cover too much material for a short introduction, and I feel that readers who are not already familiar with the topic will be left confused.

The first chapter leaps directly into the concepts of deterministic nonlinear systems and sensitive dependence, and includes a wide-ranging discussion of the work of scientists including Laplace, Newton, Franklin and Darwin.

The second chapter explains exponential growth nicely, with several examples. Chapter 3 introduces examples of dynamical systems and their associated concepts. Here, new concepts such as state space, fixed points and attractors arise very rapidly and I wonder whether they have time to sink in for the reader who is not already familiar with them. Some of the new concepts are not clearly defined.

Chapter 4, 'Chaos in mathematical models', describes the universal period-doubling cascade, the Lorenz system, the Henon map, delay equations and Hamiltonian chaos. Again, too many models are introduced too rapidly. Chapters 5 and 6 cover fractals, dimensions and Lyapunov exponents, the measures of chaos, and the book then moves on to real numbers on a computer, statistics, predictability, weather forecasts, climate change and finance, ending up with some philosophical remarks.

Although I quite enjoyed reading this book, I would not recommend it as an introduction to the subject.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good. But you need a preliminary, 11 Jun 2008

By	Wei Yanhao "Max" (Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book introduces the chaos theory relatively in details (compared with "the quantum world" J.P which introduces the entire structure of quantum physics less than 90 pages). The chaos is a very new and popular theory. It is based on the dynamical system, or dating back further, integral by I.Newton. The book itself produces nothing extremely exciting but progressively, makes you learn a lot. I find it really helpful to scan the dynamical system part in my financial math textbook before reading it. My suggestion is that you understand some concepts on integral and dynamical system first. They may be rather naive compared with the chaos theory but they at least give you a basis to develop your thoughts.

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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Introduction, 4 Oct 2006

By	kartenhaus - See all my reviews

A very readable introduction for anyone interested in nonlinear dynamics, time series, weather forecasting or climate modelling.

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