Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!maths.qmc.ac.UK!gcj From: gcj@maths.qmc.ac.UK (Gordon Joly) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Chaos theory for software engineering? Message-ID: <19762.8911171045@qmcms.maths.qmc.ac.uk> Date: 17 Nov 89 10:45:06 GMT Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root) Organization: The MITRE Corp., Washington, D.C. Lines: 24 > From: "Paul S. R. Chisholm" > Chaos theory deals > with dynamic systems, consisting of many bodies whose behavior is too > complex to model, and where small changes in the initial conditions can > lead to enormous changes in the final state. Yup, sounds like the > software *I'm* responsible for.-) Chaos can be seen in very simple systems. The iron ball pendulum with *three* magnets on the plate below is an example. Agreed sensitivity to small changes in initial conditions is a characteristic of chaotic behaviour, for example some weather patterns (with Lorentz attractors). AI is research is trying to *introduce* chaos into systems. Has chaos has only been observed in analogue physical systems? Gordon Joly. ARPA: gjoly@nfs.ac.uk BITNET: gcj%@uk.ac.qmc.maths@AC.UK Academic Department of Psychiatry, University College Middlesex School of Medicine, Middlesex Hospital, LONDON W1N 8AA, U.K.