Ziauddin Sardar - Introducing Chaos: A Graphic Guide

But today it is seen as one of the most notable since the advent of quantum theory in the early 1900s.

If chaos theory fulfils its potential, it will dramatically change the way we view the natural world and ourselves.

Chaos is exciting for all these reasons ...

It connects our everyday experiences to the laws of nature by revealing the subtle relationships between simplicity and complexity and between orderliness and randomness.

It presents a universe that is at once deterministic and obeys the fundamental physical laws, but is capable of disorder, complexity and unpredictability.

It shows that predictability is a rare phenomenon operating only within the constraints that science has filtered out from the rich diversity of our complex world.

It opens up the possibility of simplifying complicated phenomena.

It combines imaginative mathematics with the awesome processing power of modern computers.

It casts doubt on the traditional model-building procedures of science.

It shows that there are inherent limits to our understanding and predicting the future at all levels of complexity.

It is strikingly beautiful! Shakespeare had it right when he had Hamlet say in Act 1, scene 5 ...

There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Hi! Im Cordiallia Cauliflower. Just look at what chaos has done to me!

Where Does Chaos Come From?

Three major recent developments have made chaos a household word.

Breathtaking computing power that enables researchers to perform hundreds of millions of complicated calculations in matters of seconds.

The rise in computing power has been accompanied by a growing scientific interest in irregular phenomena such as ...

random changes in weather

the spread of epidemics

the metabolism of cells

the changing populations if insects and birds

the rise and fall of civilizations

the propagation of impulses along our nerves

Chaos theory was born when these developments were combined with the emergence of a new style of geometrical mathematics ...

Beyond the familiar shapes of Euclidean geometry ...

To non-Euclidean structures of fractal geometry.

These developments have made an impact in almost every field of human endeavour. Chaos theory has been like a sea into which flow the rivers and tributaries of almost every discipline and subject from mathematics, physics, astronomy, meteorology, biology, chemistry, medicine to economics and engineering, from the study of fluids and electrical circuits to the study of stock markets and civilizations.

Defining Chaos

Chaos has been variously defined. Here are just a few examples ...

A kind of order without periodicity.

Apparently random recurrent behaviour in a simple deterministic (clock-work-like) system.

The qualitative study of unstable aperiodic behaviour in deterministic nonlinear dynamical systems.

And heres another by a mathematician in the field, Ian Stewart.

The ability of simple models without inbuilt random features, to generate highly irregular behaviour.

Technical definitions of chaos are not easy to understand. So lets begin to familiarize ourselves with its terminology.

The Language of Chaos
Dynamic, Change and Variable

Chaos is a dynamic phenomenon. It occurs when something changes. Basically, there are two types of changes.

Regular ones studied by classical physics and dynamics.

And chaotic ones. There may be other types which we have not discovered yet!

What is changeable in a given situation is referred to as a variable.

Systems

Any entity that changes with time is called a system. Systems thus have variables. Here are some examples of systems.

The human body

The population of penguins in the Antarctic

Molecules in an imaginary box

Flu moving through a country

The X Flies

A school

Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

Defining Systems