Homework should be turned in at the BEGINNING OF CLASS.
Please list the names of any students or faculty who you worked with
on the assignment. Answer the following questions, making sure to write in
COMPLETE SENTENCES.
Chapter 1 (pp. 1 - 8)
Read Chapter 1 of Devaney's textbook, including the wonderful figures.
(Side note: my former research student Trevor O'Brien, HC '05, created
pictures similar to Plates 36-38 in his honors thesis work while Gabe Weaver,
HC '04, found figures similar to Plate 39 while working with me one summer on
an HC Fisher grant. A figure created by each student is presented at the top of the
course webpage.)
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In the figures of the various Julia sets, what do the black points represent?
What do the colored points represent?
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When was the Mandelbrot Set first seen and who is it named after?
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According to Devaney, who was the first person to discover "chaos theory"?
What problem was he working on and did he actually solve it?
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What role has the computer played in the development of the theory of
dynamical systems?
The Butterfly Effect
Read The Butterfly Effect, the first chapter of
Gleick's book on Chaos.
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Explain what the Butterfly Effect is. Who first discovered it and how?
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Why does the Butterfly Effect make it so difficult to predict the weather?
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What is the technical, mathematical name for the Butterfly Effect? We will
see this concept frequently throughout the course.
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The author makes the point that the Butterfly Effect is actually necessary
for the Earth's weather system. Explain what he means by this.
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What is another natural phenomenon other than the weather where you
might expect to witness the Butterfly Effect?