Keywords
Citation
Hutton, D.M. (2006), "Exploring Chaos: Theory and Experiment", Kybernetes, Vol. 35 No. 3/4, pp. 594-595. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2006.35.3_4.594.4
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Although this book was published in 2003, and even a few years can seriously affect relevance of modern books. Its approach to the study of chaotic systems makes it an excellent text for those who wish to understand such systems. The author's approach as the title suggests is one of experimentation in a “hands‐on way” with chaotic systems.
To “Explore Chaos” the book offers software appropriately called “Chaos For Java”. This is easily downloaded from the given web site. The software is a necessary aid to the experimentation with many chaotic systems. These include systems such as the logistic, tent, Henon and Rossler equations, which can be plotted for various parameters and initial values. In addition, the author suggests a number of quantitative experiments that can be setup using the software provided.
After a comprehensive introduction the following chapters deal with: one and two dimensional systems; bifurcation diagrams; Lyapunov maps; Poincare sections and Fourier analysis.
To help the reader understand each chapter's content the author provides some 40 exercises. These are particularly useful when the book is used as a teaching text.
The book provides a refreshing and indeed, novel approach to the subject. The experimental approach rather like the heuristic one has lost some of its attractions as a popular teaching method. But now, surely with the easy access to computer systems and purpose designed software being easily downloaded it may make a deserved comeback.
Some cyberneticians and systemists may well consider the book to be “too mathematical” for them. Obviously, you cannot escape the mathematics when studying such a topic and should not attempt to avoid the detail. Brian Davies, the author has aimed at simplifying his mathematical treatment of many of the concepts he has introduced and they become more understandable to a much wider readership. Anyone who wants to delve more deeply will have no difficulty in supplementing the text. Teaching staff will find the book an excellent course textbook that follows an approach that will excite the student's interest.