1. Frederick H. Willeboordse
Taming Chaos
GEM2505
Frederick H. Willeboordse

2. Briefing and Introduction
Lecture 0

3. Who am I ??? Frederick H. Willeboordse S12 #03-06 Dept. Physics
Specialized in Complex Systems and Chaos
Who am I ???
This picture was taken in 2371 on board of the starship Enterprise and is, due to time distortions, a bit blurry. Who would have thought I’d end up in Singapore!

4. Why the module? Understanding
In order to gain an understanding of nature in a way that’s rather different from the traditional approach.
How about Math?
We’ll need some Mathematics but it will be limited and should generally not exceed secondary school level.

5. Workload The total workload for this GEM is 10 hours per week.
A: 2 – 4 lecture hours per week
B: 1 tutorial hour per week
C: 0 lab work per week
D: hours for assignments per week
E: 4 hours of preparation work per week
Of course, for this module, items D&E can overlap.

6. Schedule
Lectures: 2 – 4 hours per week for a total of 26 lecture hours
(these include the in-class quizzes)
Mondays & Thursdays 16:00 – 18:00 as announced
Tutorials: 4 times 1 hour as announced
Discussion Sessions: 3 times: As announced

7. Schedule Jan 12, 2004 Lecture 0 Jan 15, 2004 Lecture 1 Jan 19, 2004
SCT1
Jan 29, 2004
Lecture 4
Feb 5, 2004
ICT1
Feb 9, 2004
Lecture 5
Feb 12, 2004
Lecture 6
Week of Feb 16, 2004
Reading Assignments
SCT2
Feb 23, 2004
Lecture 7
Feb 26, 2004
Lecture 8
Mar 1,
ICT2
Mar 4,
Lecture 9
Week of Mar 8, 2004
SCT3
Mar 15, 2004
Lecture 10
Mar 22, 2004
Lecture 11
SCT4
Mar 29, 2004
Lecture 12
Apr 1,
ICT3

8. Assessment
All together there will be 10 quizzes with which you can earn 5 points each for a total of 50 points. The final exam will be open book and count for 50 points as well.
Quizzes: 10 * 5 points
Exam: * 50 points

9. Lectures
During most of the lectures, there will be a quiz. Usually, I’ll try to do the quiz around the middle of the lecture so that you won’t miss it if you come late.
Discussion of Assignment
Discussion of Previous Quiz
First Part of the Lecture
Lecture
Quiz
Applets and Animations
Second Part of the Lecture

10. Tutorials
The goal of the tutorial is to have a free and open discussion.
There are two types of tutorials:
In-class
Small group
Register after the lecture.
last semester’s class
Talk!

11. Text Books
All the lecture notes as well as other relevant material can be found on my web site at:
There are no required text books!
Recommended Book: James Gleick - Chaos

12. Course Contents
There will be three chapters around the broader theme of chaos – some changes may still be made!
The Essence of Chaos
Fractals, CAs & Networks
Understanding Chaos
Does organization need regularity?

13. Course Contents =? I. The Essence of Chaos The Butterfly Effect
The Clockwork Syndrome =?

14. Course Contents
II. Fractals
The Cantor Set
The Mandelbrot Set

15. Course Contents II. Cellular Automata The Game of Life
A New Kind of Science

16. Course Contents II. Scalefree Networks The Internet The Cell
What do they have in common?

17. Course Contents III. Understanding Chaos The Logistic Map
Strange Attractors
Universality & Randomness

18. Some Examples of Chaos
The motion of the planets is chaotic. In fact, even the sun, earth moon system cannot be solved analytically!

19. Some Examples of Chaos The red spot on Jupiter:
Can such a spot survive in a chaotic environment?
Or perhaps, can it exist without chaos?

20. Some Examples of Chaos An experiment by Swinney:
One of the great successes of experimental chaos studies. A spot is reproduced.
Note: these are false colors.

21. Some Examples of Chaos Beluzov-Zhabotinski reaction
Waves representing the concentration of a certain chemical(s).
These can assume many patterns and can also be chaotic

22. Some Examples of Chaos
Satellite image of a river delta:

23. Some Examples of Chaos Yummi!
Broccoli Romanesco is a cross between Broccoli and Cauliflower.

24. Some Examples of Chaos Would there be life without chaos?
The venous and arterial system of a kidney

25. Summary Our world is embedded in a dichotomy of order and chaos.
It is possible to gain a qualitative understanding of chaos without too much mathematics.
Chaos is fun!