Definition:Chaos

Definition

Chaos is a phenomenon of nonlinear dynamics.

It is a type of behaviour found in certain deterministic dynamical systems whose evolution appears to be random or otherwise unpredictable.

Typically, such a system exhibits sensitive dependence on initial conditions.

Also see

• Definition:Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions
• Definition:Strange Attractor

• Results about chaos can be found here.

Historical Note

The term chaos was introduced in $1975$ by Tien-Yien Li and James Alan Yorke in their work on periodic points for transformations of the real number line.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): chaos
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): chaos