A unit on oscillations, determinism and chaos for introductory physics students

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 72, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 446-452

  Laws, Priscilla W ^a  

^a DICKINSON COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1842664404     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.1649964     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. P. W. Laws and P. J. Cooney, "Workshop Physics: A sample class on oscillations, determinism and chaos," Proceedings of the International Conference on Undergraduate Physics Education [AIP Conf. Proc. 399, 959 (1997)].
2. P. W. Laws, "Calculus-based physics without lectures," Phys. Today 44 (12), 24-29 (1991).
3. 〈http://physics.dickinson.edu/~wp_web/wp_homepage.html〉.
4. P. W. Laws, Workshop Physics Activity Guide, Modules 1-4 (Wiley, New York, 1997).
5. Reference 4, Module 2, Unit 15.
6. Vernier Software and Technology, 13979 SW Millikan Way, Beaverton, OR 97005-2886 and 〈www.vernier.com〉.
7. PASCO, 10101 Foothills, Blvd., Roseville, CA 95747-7100 and 〈www.pasco.com〉. See PASCO 2003 Catalog, p. 174.
8. J. A. Blackburn and G. L. Baker, "A comparison of commercial chaotic pendulums," Am. J. Phys. 66 (9), 821-870 (1998).
9. Klinger Products, Leybold Didactic GmbH, Leyboldstrasse 1, 50354 Hueth, Germany and 〈www.leybold_didactic.com〉.
10. Daedalon, 35 Congress St., Salem MA 01970-6228 and 〈www.daedalon. com/chaoticpend.html〉.
11. Pierre-Simon Laplace, Philosophical Essays on Probabilities, translated by A. I. Dale from the 5th French edition of 1825 (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1995).
12. Henri Poincaré, Science and Method, translated by Francis Maitand (Dover, New York, 1952).
13. The Strange New Science of Chaos, NOVA, 1989. The VHS version of this video (Coronet #5919) is no longer available. It is still available in a number of libraries.
14. H. Gould and J. Tobochnik, Computer Simulation Methods (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1996), 2nd ed., pp. 41-42.
15. An excellent introduction to numerical integration can be found in R. Feynman, R. Leighton, and M. Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1963), Vol. 1, Chap. 9, pp. 9-4-9-8.
16. This Excel model can be downloaded from the Resources section of the Workshop Physics web site, 〈physics.dickinson.edu/wp〉.
17. C. Misner and P. J. Cooney, Spreadsheet Physics (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1991), Chap. 6, p. 81.
18. G. L. Baker and J. P. Gollub, Chaotic Dynamics: An Introduction (Cambridge U.P., New York, 1990), Chap. 1, p. 3.
19. S. Kellert, a philosopher of science, has a fascinating discussion of how chaos theory presents us with unpredictable deterministic models in his book entitled In the Wake of Chaos (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1993), Chap. 3.
20. R. DeSerio, "Chaotic pendulum: The complete attractor," Am. J. Phys. 71 (3), 250-257 (2003).