The Sierpenski Triangle

Welcome to Intro. to Chaotic Dynamical Systems with Dr. Howard

Announcements:

• I have a written statement of the take-home problem for the final exam.
• For Section 4.3, exercise 11, you will need to try a trial-and-error approach.  I've written a Maple program that may help you.
• The lesson plan guidelines are now available.
• Download your own copy of WINFEED, software that will help with the homework.

Contents of this site:

• Course materials:  syllabus, homework assignments, more later
• A list of related references and resources

Course Materials

• The up-to-date course syllabus
• Homework assignments
• Answers to some of the supplemental problems:
• Attraction criterion problems
• Doubling map problems
• Lesson plan guidelines
• Maple worksheets:
• Logistic function -- an animation illustrating the emergence of a two-cycle
• Java applets:
• Finding period 2 points of the logistic family of functions
• Previous tests:
• Summer 2000:  mid-term

Here are some related references/resources:

• Books:
• "A First Course in Chaotic Dynamical Systems" by Bob Devaney.  Published by Perseus Publishing Company.
• "Chaos:  Making a New Science", by James Gleick.  Published by Penguin USA.
• Columns from Ivars Peterson's MathTrek:
• "Tilt-A-Whirl Chaos (II)" from MAA online.
• "Prophet of Chaos" from  Science News, 13 Nov. 1999.
• Related web sites:
• The Applied Chaos Lab of Georgia Tech discusses practical implications of chaos theory.
• Java applets by Bob Devaney, Boston University.
• "The Chaos Hypertextbook" by Glenn Elert
• WINFEED by Robert Parris
• "Chaos at Maryland"  is the home page for one of the top research groups in the field of chaos.
• "What is Chaos?" by Matthew Trump, Univ. of Texas at Austin
• "The Theory and Practice of Chaos" by Dale Winter, Univ. of Michigan's Michigan Math Scholars program