Python: Lorenz

If you follow my blog or have devoted at least a minute to run through the headings, you should know that I am a fanatic of Chaos Theory. Or rather, I am crazy about messing with very simple systems, which are related to the ideas of sensitive dependence on initial conditions, unexpectedly complex behavior and other stuff that the words ‘mathematical chaos’ bring to one’s mind. The key word here is ‘simple’, since, because of very modest math skills, during my exploration I kept avoiding things involving any non-trivial mathematics. The most notable here is the fact that I didn’t even try to approach the Lorenz system, whose phase portrait, along with the plots of Mandelbrot set, may be considered the symbol of the Chaos Theory. However, beside playing with the Barnsley fern the last month I also made up enough guts to try and code the most well-known chaotic system.

Clojure: Barnsley Fern

In addition to other pleasurable events, the last month I got as a gift yet another book devoted to the Chaos Theory – ‘Simply Chaos’ by Sergey Demenok (in Russian). This one vaguely reminds me of ‘Chaos: Making a New Science’ by James Gleick, since both aim mostly at attracting readers to science, explaining it to them and showing how beautiful it can be. Still they differ a lot, with ‘Simply Chaos’ being more joyful reading balancing on the boundary between historical and scientifical truth on one side and myth and fantasy on the other. This way the last book was a great and funny refresher, making me remember of some things, that fascinated me while I was reading the Gleick’s ‘Chaos’ a year and a half ago. Most notably, I faced the idea of Barnsley Fern once more.