Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos

by Ian Stewart

Overview

The revised and updated edition includes three completely new chapters on the prediction and control of chaotic systems. It also incorporates new information regarding the solar system and an account of complexity theory. This witty, lucid and engaging book makes the complex mathematics of chaos accessible and entertaining.

• Presents complex mathematics in an accessible style.
• Includes three new chapters on prediction in chaotic systems, control of chaotic systems, and on the concept of chaos.
• Provides a discussion of complexity theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631232513
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/26/2002
Edition description:	2ND, REVISED
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.48(w) x 8.52(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is an active research mathematician with over 140 published papers, and has written or co-authored numerous books including The Collapse of Chaos (1994), Nature's Numbers (1995), Figments of Reality (1997), Life's Other Secret (1998), The Science of Discworld (1999), and Flatterland (2001). His awards include the 1995 Faraday Medal of the Royal Society and the 2000 Gold Medal of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition.

Prologue: Clockwork or Chaos?

1 Chaos from Order.

2 Equations for Everything.

3 The Laws of Error.

4 The Last Universalist.

5 One-way Pendulum.

6 Strange Attractors.

7 The Weather Factory.

8 Recipe for Chaos.

9 Sensitive Chaos.

10 Fig-trees and Feigenvalues.

11 The Texture of Reality.

12 Return to Hyperion.

13 The Imbalance of Nature.

14 Beyond the Butterfly.

15 Von Neumann's Dream.

16 Chaos and the Quantum.

17 Farewell, Deep Thought.

Epilogue: Dicing with the Deity.

Further Reading.

Illustration Acknowledgements.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

"A book well worth reading and a valuable contribution to the literature on chaos" (New Scientist)

"For those who have even rudimentary mathematical knowledge, for teachers and for lively-minded school and university students, Stewart give a valuable insight into the innards of chaos" (The Times Higher Education Supplement)

"A fine introduction to a complex subject" (Daily Telegraph)

From the Publisher