Introduction to Chaos and Fractals

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Schedule and Assignments

This will be updated frequently.

• Week One
  • "Monday" 3 January: No reading. We will cover Feldman chapters 1 and 2 in class and go over the structure of the course.
  • Thursday 5 January: Read:
    • Gleick, The Butterfly Effect, pp. 9-32. Do not read Gleick's Prologue. Possible discussion topics: what is science? The nature of scientific explanation(s).
    • Why I just asked my students to put their laptops away by Clay Shirky. (No need to print this out.)
    • Feldman, Chapter 0. A few pages that attempts to give an overview of chaos and fractals. This is mainly to orient you to the course. I have no plans to discuss this, but am happy to answer questions.
    In class we will cover Feldman chapters 3.
  • Homework 1, due Friday, January 6.
• Week Two
  • Monday 9 January: Read
    • Gleick, Revolutions, pp. 35-56
    • An additional reading on Kuhn that I'll send out via email.
    Possible discussion topics: How does change occur in science? How does change occur in other areas (art, music, social norms, politics)? Incommensurability. Paradigms. Does COA have a paradigm? In class we will cover Feldman chapter 3.
  • Thursday 12 January: No reading. In class we will cover Feldman Chapters 4, 5, and 6.
  • Homework 2, due Friday, January 13.
• Week Three
  • Monday 16 January: No reading. In class we will cover Feldman chapter 7
  • First Paper Due
  • Thursday 19 January:
    • Do exercise 7.8 from the textbook. You won't hand this in but we'll discuss it in class. The program you need is here.
    • After doing this exercise, read Gleick, Life's Ups and Downs.
  • Homework 3, due Friday, January 20.
• Week Four
  • Monday 23 January: Read "The Best Possible Time to be Alive", distributed via email.
  • Thursday 26 January: First do exercise 11.3 part a. Then read "Universality" from Gleick. The program you need is here.
  • Homework 4, due Friday, January 27.
• Week Five
  • Monday 30 January: Read "The Experimenter" from Gleick. In class we will cover chapter 15 and part of 16.
  • Thursday 2 February: Read "A Geometry of Nature". (Optional reading: a book review of Mandelbrot's memoir by Brian Hayes.)
  • Homework 5, due Friday, February 3.
• Week Six
  • Monday 6 February: Read Cloudy with a Chance of War, by David Berreby. In class we will cover Chapter 16 and do a mid-term check for the course.
  • Thursday 9 February: Fractal show and tell. Watch Hunting the Hidden Dimension.
  • Homework 6, due Friday, February 10.
• Week Seven
  • Monday 13 February: Canceled due to blizzard!
  • Thursday 16 February: No reading. In class we will cover parts of chapters 17 and 21.
• Week Eight
  • Monday 20 February: Read Hilborn, Robert C. "Sea gulls, butterflies, and grasshoppers: A brief history of the butterfly effect in nonlinear dynamics." American Journal of Physics 72.4 (2004): 425-427. In class we will cover parts of chapters 17 and 22.
  • Second Paper Due
  • Thursday 23 February: Read "The Dynamical Systems Collective" from Gleick.
  • Homework 7, due Friday, February 24.
• Week Nine
  • Monday 27 February: Read "Images of Chaos" from Gleick. In class we'll discuss the Mandelbrot set.
  • Monday 27 February 4:10 - 5:30: Make up class due to 2/13 blizzard. Strange attractors.
  • Thursday 2 March: Readings from The Mathematical Intelligencer, distributed via email.
• Week Ten
  • Monday 6 March: Exhibition and presentations
  • Thursday 9 March: Presentations and conclusion. Read Chapter 32 from the textbook and Corson's Inlet by A.R. Ammons.
  • Homework 8, due Friday, March 10.