Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rochester.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!rochester!nemo
From: nemo@rochester.UUCP (Wolfe)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Fractals & Chaos
Message-ID: <12113@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Oct-85 08:52:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.12113
Posted: Mon Oct  7 08:52:26 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Oct-85 06:07:30 EDT
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 29

[lost your appetite?]

I recently read an article from the NY Times magazine that introduced
me to a field of study in Physics called "chaos".  The basic idea was
that physicists could get a handle on choatic phenomena (like water
going over a waterfall, or vortices, or cigarette smoke) and particularly
the critical transition from orderly to chaotic  (ie: where the smoke
starts curling crazily) by the character of some equations.  These
were used iteratively, plugging the new iterate into the equation to 
get the next one.  In general, the equations (meaning what happens to
the sequence) are very sensitive to starting conditions, which is why
physicists have had a rough time with non-linear, chaotic events.  The
reason I bring this up is the similarity with both computing fractals
and their appearance.  One way I have heard them described is in terms
of the way the pattern repeats itself on all levels of magnification.
The same is true for these beasties being played with in chaos.  Does
anyone know more about this field (chaos) or the relationship between
the mathematics they study and fractals?  It seems that the hope I 
heard expressed that fractals could open up understanding of many hitherto
dficult fields (like metal crystalization, etc) is already a fact (by
chaos in economics, fluid flow, laser irregularities, etc).
Nemo
-- 
Internet:	nemo@rochester.arpa
UUCP:		{decvax, allegra, seismo, cmcl2}!rochester!nemo
Phone:		[USA] (716) 275-5766 school 232-4690 home
USMail:		104 Tremont Circle; Rochester, NY  14608
School:		Department of Computer Science; University of Rochester;
		Rochester, NY  14627