Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers
Mark D.J. Brown · Shock and Vibration · 1996
Chaos is a relatively new area of nonlinear dynamics that has only received attention in the last 10-15 years.The study of chaos was originally limited to mathematicians.In recent years, a great number of scientists and engineers have become interested in chaos because of the unique opportunities it presents.On the surface chaotic behavior appears to be almost random, but in reality chaos is deterministic.Knowledge of the initial conditions of a chaotic system allows one to predict its future behavior.Because a priori knowledge of the initial conditions is rare, practical applications have been slow in coming.But chaos is now beginning to find applications in controls, secure communications, and lasers.One of the shortcomings in the study of chaos has been the lack of a good "primer" for new scientists and engineers entering this field of study.To date, most texts on chaos require some prior knowledge of nonlinear dynamics.This text provides an excellent source for any scientist or engineer wanting to learn about chaos.It begins with basic descriptions and examples of chaos and nonlinear dynamics and is written for technical people with little or no prior knowledge of nonlinear dynamics.Those who already have a basic knowledge of nonlinear dynamics may only wish to review the first several chapters.Rather than presenting complex definitions at the beginning of the text, the author "builds" the definitions, starting with basic concepts and then