Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
62 used & new from £0.84
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Chaos: Making a New Science
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Chaos: Making a New Science (Paperback)

by James Gleick (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.49 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.50 (35%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 14? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
25 new from £4.27 37 used from £0.84
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 17 used & new from £0.55
Paperback (New edition) 171 used & new from £0.01

Frequently Bought Together

Chaos: Making a New Science + Fermat's Last Theorem + Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Price For All Three: £18.57

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos (Penguin Mathematics)

Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos (Penguin Mathematics)

by Ian Stewart
4.2 out of 5 stars (4)  £7.14
Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem

by Simon Singh
4.8 out of 5 stars (132)  £6.49
Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

by Timothy Gowers
4.9 out of 5 stars (9)  £5.59
Chaos: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Chaos: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

by Leonard Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £5.99
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

by Brian Greene
4.4 out of 5 stars (56)  £6.69
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 380 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (24 Feb 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0749386061
  • ISBN-13: 978-0749386061
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 20,623 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Chaos
    #2 in  Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Mathematics > Applied Mathematics > Chaos & Fractal Theory
    #3 in  Books > Science & Nature > Physics > Chaos & Dynamic Systems

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
Building Chemistry
   www.btc-uk.com/dispersions    Distribution of dispersions. Professional service. 
Create A New
   www.Ask.com    Find the Best Results for Create A New. 
  
 

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. In Chaos, James Gleick, a former science writer for the New York Times, shows that he resides in this exclusive category. Here he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterise many natural phenomena.

This is not a purely technical book. Instead, it focuses as much on the scientists studying chaos as on the chaos itself. In the pages of Gleick's book, the reader meets dozens of extraordinary and eccentric people. For instance, Mitchell Feigenbaum, who constructed and regulated his life by a 26-hour clock and watched his waking hours come in and out of phase with those of his coworkers at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

As for chaos itself, Gleick does an outstanding job of explaining the thought processes and investigative techniques that researchers bring to bear on chaos problems. Rather than attempt to explain Julia sets, Lorenz attractors and the Mandelbrot Set with gigantically complicated equations, Chaos relies on sketches, photographs and Gleick's wonderful descriptive prose. --Christine Buttery

Product Description
This book brings together different work in the new field of physics called the chaos theory, an extension of classical mechanics, in which simple and complex causes are seen to interact. Mathematics may only be able to solve simple linear equations which experiment has pushed nature into obeying in a limited way, but now that computers can map the whole plane of solutions of non-linear equations a new vision of nature is revealed. The implications are staggeringly universal in all areas of scientific work and philosophical thought.

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
chaos
fractals
science bestsellers

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Chaos: Making a New Science
87% buy the item featured on this page:
Chaos: Making a New Science 4.5 out of 5 stars (17)
£6.49
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
4% buy
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory 4.4 out of 5 stars (56)
£6.69
Chaos: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
3% buy
Chaos: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) 4.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£5.99
Fermat's Last Theorem
3% buy
Fermat's Last Theorem 4.8 out of 5 stars (132)
£6.49
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful read !, 24 Jan 2003
By "optimistix" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This book is called 'Chaos : Making a new science' - so it should hardly
surprise anyone that it deals with the history of Chaos, bringing forth
the elementary concepts of the field along the way.
This book isn't, nor does it pretend to be, a textbook on chaos theory,
so one shouldn't expect too much maths or technical details. On the other
hand, a little maths is unavoidable for discussing even the most basic
notions of chaos theory, so the reader should be prepared for some
(not very demanding) maths.

The style adopted by Gleick is to interweave the personal lives of the
major players involved in the birth of chaos with a description the
concepts, thus giving the book a feel of an interesting story while
introducing a plethora of dazzling ideas at the same time.

The idea of self-similarity, of patterns composed of infinitely-repeating
tiny replicas of themselves, is astounding, to say the least. And to
learn that nature is full of such patterns is revealing indeed. The
implications to science and technology are far-reaching and often
surprising - researchers in Computer Networking have discovered that
network traffic in large networks such as the internet may actually be
following self-similar patterns !!

Personally, i found this to be a delightful read - Gleick's writing is
racy, the ideas involved are mind-bending, and the vivid imagery will
stay with you for a long,long time. I fell in love with fractals at
first sight and can gaze at a collection of beautiful fractals for hours.

In brief, this is a light, breezy account of the history of Chaos, with
a gentle introduction to the basic ideas of Chaos without much technical
details and only a minimum of maths.

One of the best 'Science for everyone' books i've ever read!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars More than just a book!, 10 Dec 2001
This book left me looking at the world in a radically different perspective. It seemed to suggest that in the late twentieth century we were begining to pin down the extremely subtle mathematics that underpinned almost everything and as a consequence were suddenly gaining an incredible insight into what's actually going on behind the scenes of the universe.
You enter this book knowing chaos as a buzzword occasionally touched upon by the media and gradually realise that it describes the 'forces at work' behind a whole array of things from something as trivial as the Newton-Raphson procedure (who'd have thought a simple piece of A-level maths could give rise to cutting adge research?) to matters as important as the weather, the interepherence in phone lines, the populations in an e-cology, indeed (without meaning to give away the book's climax) it's the very set of theories and idea's that keeps human beings alive!
An absolute must for anyone who's ever wondered why they wonder!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A little chaotic, 21 Nov 2001
By A Customer
It should be noted from the beginning that this is not a "Layman's guide to Chaos theory ". It is in fact a "Once upon a time" account of the birth and development of this fascinating science. The problem is, who this book is trying to fascinate.

The first half is certainly handled well, with Gleick balancing the building up of Chaos Theory with the lives and characters of its pioneers. It does however prelude what is to come in the book: At times, though the language is clear, the concepts become obscured, especially as the author tries to keep things broad and general.

It gets worse in the second half of the book, as it becomes less and less clear who the author is talking to: People with a background in Chaos theory, or people who know nothing about it? The first group would find nothing interesting here apart from happy memoirs, while the second would be left scratching their heads as they go over and over the same paragraphs, trying to decipher the deeper meanings.

As an Introduction to Chaos, the book suffers from over-generalisations and fast pace: Gleick seems happy to glide from the surface of tough concept to the surface of tougher concept and then get poetic with the conclusions, before an ordinary reader realises that there were actually any conclusions to be made. In his own comments the author even "winks" to those in the know, providing "inside jokes" that only the people he has interviewed would probably get. The rest of us outsiders are left baffled and frustrated.

However, as a documentation of Chaos, the book is decent. Well-researched and well-planned, if you already know the specifics of Chaos theory, you 'll enjoy reading a general review of how this breakthrough way of thinking came to be, survived "persecution" and eventually influenced everything it touched.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Gets better and better
I rather think my review is going to be the reverse of "A Customer"'s review! Personally I wasn't overly enamoured with the first half of this book - with the possible exception... Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Rawson

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for all believers in science
I read this book 20 years ago at a time when I truly believed science had the answers. Just because it's called "chaos theory", don't think that this may be "just a theory", it's... Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. Non

4.0 out of 5 stars Order from Chaos
We all know things that are not predictable. These can be everyday occurrences like the weather, or more specialised events (whether the stock market will go up or down). Read more
Published 21 months ago by Mr P R Morgan

5.0 out of 5 stars New wisdom
I love this book because of its association with systems theory and the concept of emergent properties. Read more
Published on 18 May 2007 by Stephen Parry

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Enlightening Introduction to a Whole New World
I am educated to degree level, however my degree is not in any scientific discipline. I only recently developed an interest in science, and have since read many popular science... Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2004 by John K

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Book
This was the first book I ever read on chaos theory. I am not involved in chaos theory at all, but I was interested in finding out more about it as it was big news at the... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars Non-academics, beware!!!
This isn't your average science book. In parts, it would be better described as a history book. However, when science is explained, it is complicated. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2002 by Stephen Belford

4.0 out of 5 stars It puts some order in Chaos
Chaos in itself is an interesting subject. A book that puts forward some of the most recent thinking around it has a great chance to be interesting. Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2001 by P. Janeiro

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for the non-mathemeticians amongst us
Which includes me! Its funny but I also developed a better understanding of the maths/physics community from this book too - I didn't realise there was so much competition. Read more
Published on 20 Jul 2001 by pek_uk@hotmail.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Order from chaos!
Well worth reading if you've ever wondered how computers generate some of the complex patterns we so often see in science magazines. Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2000

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

›Shop The Body Shop

  

Up to 75% off Shoes

Shoe Clearance - 75% off Shoes
Save up to 75% on shoes for the whole family.

›Shop clearance shoes

  

Boys Smell

Lynx Africa Body Spray and After Shave Gift set
But we make sure they smell good...

›Discover male grooming at Amazon.co.uk

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4.5 out of 5 stars (72)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (461)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (162)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (80)£3.86

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates