Customer Reviews

Chaos: A Mathematical Introduction (Australian Mathematical Society Lecture Series)

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4 star:		(2)
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Chaos is such a visually stunning field of study, since you invariably run into those computer generated figures of Julia sets or random fractal landscapes or cloud formations.

But can we get a rigorous, first principles explanation that is broadly accessible to undergraduates with good, but not advanced math preparation? Well, you might consider this recent book. The authors have gone to some length to explain events without appealing to more than simple calculus.

Nothing flashy. But you can obtain a good understanding of fractal dimensions, self iterating systems (like a Sierpinski gasket) and noise.

Firstly, this is one of those rare technical books which one can thoroughly enjoy. It can be read at a number of levels and rewards any effort put into understanding the concepts and the mathematics. One needs decent calculus, basic set theory and a bit of topology to wade through the maths. The text and diagrams are clear and unambiguous. The fonts and layout are well chosen for easy reading, always an important consideration for technical books. As this is a text book for a course in elementary chaos theory, the authors write out the proofs fully, in an almost bullet point fashion which makes it very easy to follow the argumentation. I like this style very much.

What I don't like is the lack of solutions (preferably worked solutions) to the excellent exercises at the end of each topic. This is one of my major bugbears about textbooks. Without worked solutions one simply cannot get the feedback required for a full understanding of the subject. Not everyone who buys the book will be attending classes and they will never know if they are on track or not. To make me even crankier, the authors will provide worked solutions to "bona fide" teachers who contact them. How about letting teachers, bona fide or otherwise, write their own exercises instead of taking the easy way out, and letting students learn using the well accepted techniques of feedback and reinforcement.

A star is lost! Hufff!