Dynamical Systems and Fractals: Computer Graphics Experiments with Pascal

by Karl-Heinz Becker , Michael Dörfler , Translated by I. Stewart

• ISBN13: 9780521369107
• ISBN10: 052136910X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-10-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book is about chaos, fractals and complex dynamics, and is addressed to all people who have some familiarity with computers and enjoy using them. The mathematics has been kept simple, with few formulae, yet the reader is introduced to and can learn about an area of current scientific research which was scarcely possible before the availability of computers. The introduction is achieved through the extensive use of computer graphics. The book is divided into two main parts: in the first the most interesting problems are described, with, in each case, a solution in the form of a computer program. A large number of exercises enable the reader to undertake his or her own experimental work. In the second part, example programs are given for specific machines and operating systems; details refer to MS-DOC and Turbo-Pascal, UNIX 4.2 BSD with Berkley Pascal and C. Other implementations of the graphics routines are given for Apple Macintosh, Apple IIE and IIGS and Atari ST.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface to the German edition

1. Researchers discover chaos

2. Between order and chaos: Feinenbaum diagrams

3. Strange attractors

4. Greetings for Sir Isaac

5. Complex frontiers

6. Encounter with the gingerbread man

7. New sights - new insights

8. Fracteal computer graphics

9. Step by step into chaos

10. Journey to the land of infinite structures

11. Building blocks for graphics experiments

12. Pascal and the fig-trees

13. Appendices

Index.