Customer Reviews

The Dripping Faucet as a Model Chaotic System (The Science Frontier Express Series)

Robert Shaw is the guy who in the early eighties (together with the likes of Crutchfield, Farmer and Packard) put information theory back into physics. He analysed the [un]predictability of dynamical systems (aka chaos) in terms of the amount of information the system can store, how fast it is losing it and replacing it with noise from the "heat bath", and information flow between parts of the system.

The book ties much of that work together and describes an experimental study of a simple dripping tap, analysed this way, as a case in point that even when we have a "theory of everything" with regards to elementary particles, we are only just starting to understand what makes even the simplest systems tick.

Phase space, Lyapunov exponents, noise, entropy, dimension of a "strange attractor", geometry from a time series, it's all coming together in this stunningly insightful voyage of discovery. The rough typewriter print, handwritten formulae and delightful cartoon illustrations convey well the sense of immediacy, of science in the making.

This is physics for the 21st century. If you're curious about nature, read it. You will never think the same again.