Introduction to Chaos and Fractals

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Schedule and Assignments

This will be updated frequently.

• Week One
  • Monday 8 January: No reading. We will cover Feldman chapters 1 and 2 in class and go over the structure of the course.
  • Thursday 11 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.)
    • Addiction, accommodation, and better solutions to the laptop problem by Michelle Miller.
    • Optional: Feldman, Chapter 0. A few pages that attempt 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 or outside of class.
    In class we will cover Feldman chapters 2 and 3.
  • Homework 1, due Friday, January 12.
• Week Two
  • Monday 15 January: No reading. In class we will cover Feldman Chapters 4, 5, and 6.
  • Thursday 18 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?
  • Homework 2, due Friday, January 19.
• Week Three
  • Monday 22 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.
  • Thursday 25 January:
    • Read "The Best Possible Time to be Alive", distributed via email.
  • Homework 3, due Friday, January 26.
• Week Four
  • Monday 29 January:
    • First do exercise 11.3 part a.
    • Then read "Universality" from Gleick. The program you need is here.
  • First Paper due Monday, Jan 29.
  • Thursday 1 February
    • Read "The Experimenter" from Gleick.
    • In class we will cover chapter 15 and part of 16.
  • Homework 4, due Friday, Feb 2.
• Week Five
  • Monday 4 January
    • Read "A Geometry of Nature" from Gleick.
    • Read a book review of Mandelbrot's memoir by Brian Hayes.
    • In class we will cover Chapter 16 and I will talk a bit about the renormalization group.
  • Thursday 2 February
    • Read Cloudy with a Chance of War, by David Berreby.
    • In class we'll do the mid-term check-in for the course.
  • Homework 5, due Friday, February 3.
• Week Six
  • Monday 6 February:
    • Fractal show and tell.
    • Watch Hunting the Hidden Dimension. [link 1] [link 2] [link 3] [link 4]
    • In class we'll cover Chapter 22.
  • Thursday 9 February
    • In class we'll cover Chapter 23.
    • Homework 6, due Friday, February 16.
• Week Seven
  • Monday 13 February: No reading. In class we will cover Julia Sets for complex functions and the chaos game.
  • Thursday 16 February: Read Images of Chaos, from Gleick. Bring a Julia set to class. In class we'll discuss the Mandelbrot set.
  • Homework 7, due Friday, February 23.
• Week Eight
  • Monday 26 February: Read Strange Attractors from Gleick.
  • Thursday 1 March: Read "The Dynamical Systems Collective" from Gleick?
  • Homework 8, due Friday, March 2.