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Chaos and Fractals in Simple Physical Systems as Revealed by the Computer. By Frank Varosi and James A. Yorke (Media magic) This video features studies of three important kinds of physical systems: The swinging pendulum, the double well duffing oscillator, and the laser beam oscillator. When a pendulum is forced Periodically (so that it continues to oscillate), its motion can become periodic or choatic, depending on the amount of forcing. The study of a swinging includes extraordinarily complicated "fractal" sets. Using the computer's zoom feature, the video focuses on such fractal sets and displays their beauty and complexity. in a similar manner the video the video examines the double well Duffing oscillator, which simulates a ball rolling between two basins. By means of computer graphs one can see how geometric patterns can abruptly change discontinuously as the degree of forcing is slightly modified. the final segment uses a laser beam oscillator to investigate "attractors",what they are and how they change as a physical parameter is slowly varied. Throughout the 50 min long presentation Professor Yorke describes the scientific meaning of the accompanying computer images.
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