Customer Reviews

Understanding Nonlinear Dynamics

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It is funny that there is so much hype about Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science" when this book neatly pointed out his big 'discoveries' back in 1995. That is, all of Wolfram's opus can be found in chapter 2 of this book.

The book provides a good (and relatively gentle) introduction to the mechanistic view of non-linear dynamics. Many different applications of non-linear dynamics, from physics to biology, are overviewed and many detailed examples are provided. In all, this is a great reference.

The only shortcomings are the lack of discussions about frameworks, particularly mechanistic systems, and how they influence the applicability of the models. That is, some understanding of systems theory (von Bertalanffy in particular and the work of cybernetics as well) should have been included to point out the fact that the linear causality implied by many models immediately limits their applicability.

This is a gentle introdution to nonlinear dynamics, maths are well explained, illustrations are abundant, the overview is very good overall, even if subjects are only touched. It could also serve as an introduction to finite-difference and differential equations for non-maths students.

Undergrads looking for something smooth on nonlinear dynamics should get this one...but for advanced readers it is probably a waste of time.

It happens that in any field there is a book that iluminates. This is the one in Nonlinear Dynamics. With it's clear and simple but mathematically and conceptually rich presentation this text opens the mind towards the mathemathics that you learn in your two first University years, as aplicated to innumerable Life Science examples, but at the same time interesting for any other field's applications (Physics, Maths, Chemists,..). This book deals with Dynamics in a Superb Way. Contents: 1-Finite Difference Equations. 2-Boolean Networks and Celular Automata. 3-Self Similarity and Fractal Geometry. 4-One Dimensional Differential Equations. 5-Two Dimensional Differential Equations. 6-Time Series Analysis. Apendix-A: A Multifunctional Appendix. Appendix-B: A Note on Computer Notation. Buy it, you might learn how much you can do with you mathematics knowledge!