Math 145               Introductory Chaos Theory               Spring 2008

Updated 6/6/08

 

NEW:
Lorenz attactor links: Mathematica plotting tool with sliders (needs Mathematica or free Player); cool fly through visualization (uses Shockwave); nice pictures and auralization.
Chua circuit links: Chua's Scholarpedia page; another nice page.
Cool Mathematica Chaos "demos" on dozens of topics (need Mathematica or free Player).
Informal notes on the flow map and matrix exponential.
 

INSTRUCTOR

Instructor: Debra Lewis
Office: 359B Baskin Engineering
Phone: 459-2718
E-mail: lewis at ucsc dot edu (checked more often than voicemail or gmail) and/or DebraKLewis at gmail dot com
 

TA: Patrick Schultz
Office: 354 Baskin Engineering
E-mail: pschultz at math at ucsc dot edu
Office hours: Tu 10-12, Th 4-5, and by appointment
 

Lecture: MWF 12:30PM-1:40PM, Earth & Marine B214
Lab: Tu 2:00PM-3:10PM, Soc Sci 1 135 (Mac); W 2:30-4:30PM SS1 135 (PC); F 10:30-12:00AM SS1 135 (PC).
Office hours: By appointment (the labs serve as my regularly scheduled office hours).
Course web page: http://people.ucsc.edu/~lewis/Math145 (here)
 

TEXT

Chaos: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems, by Kathleen Alligood, Timothy Sauer, and James Yorke
 

MATHEMATICA NOTEBOOKS

Cobweb plots (notebook, PDF)   (4/1/08).
Homework 1 cobweb plots and fixed point approximation (notebook, PDF)   (4/3/08).
Logistic map bifurcation plot (notebook, PDF), and periodic orbit calculations for a = 4 (notebook, PDF)   (4/10/08).  
Sensitive dependence on initial conditions (notebook, PDF)   (4/14/08).
Poincare maps for a spring model (notebook, PDF)   (4/21/08).
Some simple linear algebra (notebook, PDF)   (4/23/08).
Some stability plots (images of circles) for the Henon map (notebook, PDF)   (4/23/08).
Some very disorganized calculations related to finding the fixed points and period two orbits for the Henon map and determining their stability (notebook, PDF)   (5/1/08). (Sorry, but the lengthier version from Monday's lab got trashed; hopefully this has some of the key pieces.)
A possible approach to approximating Lyapunov exponents (notebook, PDF)   (5/14/08).
 

ADDITIONAL NOTES, SCANNED MATERIALS FROM TEXTS, ETC.

Wikipedia article on the Mandelbrot set, including fourteen levels of zoom.
Java Julia Set Generator.
Midterm solution possibilities (handwritten and probably hard to read!) and the midterm itself.
Some sections from Linear Algebra, by Michael O'Nan: eigenvalues and vectors, symmetric matrices, Jordan Normal Form   (4/23/08).
Some informal notes on the Jordan Normal Form   (4/23/08).
 

VIRTUAL LAB

If you'd like to try using the Virtual Lab (e.g. to use the UCSC Mathematica licenses), here's some information:
Instructional computing's Virtual Computer Labs website has information about installing Remote Desktop Connection and using the Virtual Lab.
Once Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection is installed on your machine (Mac users: it seems to be OK for now to ignore the "Beta out of date" message), you should be able to access the virtual lab by launching Remote Desktop Connection and logging into windows.ic.ucsc.edu; after you've typed in your username and password several times, you should see a Windows-style "desktop".
Start> Math, Stats, and Graphing takes you to the mathematical packages folder; to launch Mathematica, choose Mathematica 6.0 > Mathematica 6.
Good luck!
 

VERY TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Monday Wednesday Friday
March 31: 1.1-2   1-D maps and cobweb plots April 2: 1.3   Stability of fixed points April 4: 1.4   Periodic points
April 7: 1.5   Logistic maps April 9: 1.6   Logistic maps cont. April 11: 1.7   Sensitive dependence on I.C.s
April 14: 1.8   Itineraries April 16: "Lab visit": beetle populations April 18: 2.1   2-D systems: models
April 21: 2.1-2   Models cont., sinks etc. April 23: 2.3-4   Linear maps, coordinate changes April 25: 2.5   Nonlinear maps, the Jacobean matrix
April 28: 2.6   Stable and unstable manifolds April 30: 2.7   Ellipses May 2: MIDTERM
May 5: 3.1-2   Lyapunov exponents and chaotic orbits May 7: 3.2-3   Chaotic orbits cont., the logistic map May 9: 3.3   The logistic map cont.
May 12: 3.4   Transition graphs May 14: 3.5   Basins of attraction May 16: 4.1   Cantor sets
May 19: 4.2   Probabilistic construction of fractals May 21: 4.3-4   Fractals in deterministic systems, basin boundaries May 23: 4.5   Fractal dimension
May 26: HOLIDAY May 28: 9.1   Lorentz equations May 30: 9.2   Lorentz equations cont.
June 2: 9.3-4   Roessler attractor, Chua's circuit June 4: 9.6   Lyapunov exponents in flows June 6: TBD (presentations?)

 
HOMEWORK POLICIES

There will be weekly homework assignments, given in class on Fridays and due at the beginning of class the following Friday. Homework assignments will be posted online, but assignments are not 'locked in' until they've been given in lecture. Please let me know ASAP if you notice a discrepancy between an online assignment and the one given in class.
Most exercises will be from the text, but some may be taken from other sources (these will be provided as hard copies and online).

Late homework will be discounted and, at the discretion of the grader and/or the instructor, may not be accepted.

Your homework should be neatly written and well-organized, with the pages securely fastened together and your name on every page. Many of the exercises involve several nontrivial steps; make it clear to your readers (and yourself!) what it is you're doing at each step.

Clearly number the exercises and try to submit them in numerical order; if any problems are out of sequence, indicate that at the beginning of the assignment. (You don't need to solve them in order, just submit them in order.) The grader should not have to hunt through several pages to find a particular problem.

Computer difficulties do not justify late or incomplete assignments.